General Thermodynamic Efficiency Loss and Scaling Behavior of Eukaryotic Organisms

Abstract

A simple and general thermodynamic theory is applied to describe the irreversible aspects of the continuous process of functional efficiency loss, which occurs in dissipative biological structures after they reach maturity. Following Prigogine [G. Nicolis and I. Prigogine, Self-organization in Nonequilibrium Systems (Wiley, New York, 1997), pp. 2–3], this theory considers that these dissipative structures perform their functions carrying out cyclic processes per se since they are self-organized far from equilibrium. Starting from the theoretical fact that after biological dissipative systems reach adulthood, the functionality of their organs decreases linearly over time. We show that cumulative damage leads to the exponential law of increasing mortality rate with age for population groups, known as Gompertz’s law. The theory was applied to the determination of functional efficiency loss parameter, [Formula: see text], for 71 living beings as a function of mass covering 18 orders of magnitude. The mathematical adjustment allowed us to conclude that there is a minimum in the value of the [Formula: see text] parameter for a 23.3 kg mass which is close enough to the Homo sapiens one. We obtained useful expressions to describe the [Formula: see text] parameter for smaller masses than those of saccharomyces cerevisiae, so perhaps this theory may contribute to the study of the evolution of some dissipative pre-biological structures.