Life efficiency does not always increase with the dissipation rate

Abstract

There does not exist a general positive correlation between important life-supporting properties and the entropy production rate. The simple reason is that nondissipative and time-symmetric kinetic aspects are also relevant for establishing optimal functioning. In fact those aspects are even crucial in the nonlinear regimes around equilibrium where we find biological processing on mesoscopic scales. We make these claims specific via examples of molecular motors, of circadian cycles and of sensory adaptation, whose performance in some regimes is indeed spoiled by increasing the dissipated power. We use the relation between dissipation and the amount of time-reversal breaking to keep the discussion quantitative also in effective models where the physical entropy production is not clearly identifiable.