Life from the Viewpoint of Information

Kazuhiko Kotani

doi:10.4236/ojpp.2019.94031

Abstract

We shall consider the relationship between life and entropy from the viewpoint of information. Firstly, as long as life is alive, it tries to keep the order of its body. In contrast, inanimate materials quickly become in equilibrium. Life seems to have a special nature. However, since life is an open system, the maintenance of the order of the living body does not conflict with the second law of thermodynamics. Living life maintains its order using information and energy from the outer world. Secondly, due to the second law of thermodynamics, it is impossible to preserve information permanently. How can living organisms preserve such information? The key feature of living organisms is that there are two phases: life and death. Natural selection uses both life and death. When life is alive, life proliferates and retains genetic information. When life dies, its body is rapidly degraded and genetic information is lost. Both of them increase the number of advantageous genes for survival and eliminate disadvantageous genes for survival. In conclusion, it was confirmed that neither the maintenance of order in living body using information and energy nor the preservation of information by natural selection is inconsistent with the second law of thermodynamics.

Highlights

Since life is an open system, the maintenance of the order of the living body does not conflict with the second law of thermodynamics
It is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics that life uses information and energy to maintain order because life is an open system
This is the power of the second law of thermodynamics

Summary

Introduction

There are 64 genetic codes that encode 20 amino acids and the stop codon (Alberts, Johnson, Lewis, Raff, Roberts, & Walter, 2002c). Alphabets are converted into 7-bit binary numbers using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which everyone calls ASCII. Genetic codes can be converted into 6-bit binary numbers. Life maintains the order in its body by using information and energy This feature is specific to life and life structures such as human buildings, beehives, beaver dam, and bird nests. It is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics that life uses information and energy to maintain order because life is an open system. We shall consider the reason why living organisms can preserve information despite the second law of thermodynamics. Kotani of them increase the number of advantageous genes for survival and eliminate disadvantageous genes for survival

Natural Selection

The Preservation of Information

Natural Selection Eliminates Fatal Mutation through Death

Discussion

Conclusion