Re: Directed evolution

On Dec 12, 2:03 pm, ohara...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

In physics (my field), you really cannot run processes backward
without running into entropy, how does evolution deal with this
issue? I can imagine that on a micro-scale it is not a problem but on
a large scale it might be. It appears that evolution produces order
out of chaos in violation of thermodynamics, is this simply a local
observation or a universal one?
It is a local observation.Another way to say this is that the
entropy is an extensive, not an intensive property. The entropy
density can be lowered locally because it is an extensive property.
Look up those words in a thermodynamics text.
The best way to think of such processes on a macroscopic level is
to think of entropy as a fluid that can be moved around, analogous to
electric charge. Entropy is on a macroscopic level a fluid that can be
created but not destroyed. However, it can be moved. So one can "suck"
the entropy out of a given volume. The entropy that is sucked out goes
somewhere else. A living thing is made of nonliving material that has
had the entropy sucked out of it.
On a microscopic level, think of every photon created as
containing one Boltzmann's constant worth of entropy. So when a plant
absorbs a high energy photon from the sun, it reradiates at least 25
low energy photons. The plant absorbs a lot of high energy photons to
make one sugar molecule. And it absorbs a gigaalot of photons to make
one DNA molecule. So suppose that a sugar molecule, or a DNA molecule,
are low in entropy. Even more entropy was made from breaking up the
high energy photon into small energy photons.

I s'pose the question is if the order
produced by evolution is retained on time scales similar to the age of
the universe (unanswerable right now).
No universal-scale order was ever made by evolution. On a local
scale, disorder is removed. Removal is not the same as destruction.
Once again, entropy is an EXTENSIVE property.

Basically, I am interested in the thoughts of evolutionary bio types
on these questions.
I am an optical physicist with a serious hobby in natural
history. I am not exactly an evolutionary bio type. But I have counted
a lot of photons in my day. Every time I did an experiment, I created
lots of entropy. One makes a lot of entropy to write one scientific
paper. Really.

.

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