![]() In this framework, they review and partially try to replace previous theories regarding the thermodynamics of a hypothetical Maxwell's demon, although these new theories about the demon are not without criticism (see, for example, Porod et al 1984). We mention in passing, as a strange fact, the current coexistence of several physical theories that deal with the same topic, and in this sense, we refer the reader to the comprehensive reviews (see Lutz and Ciliberto ( 2015), and Parrondo et al. ![]() Maxwell's demon was initially an imaginary entity, but already in the late 1920s an idea emerged that Maxwell's demons could actually exist in living things and be promoters of the complex organization exhibited by individuals and biological collectives, in its various scales of complexity. These "biological Maxwell's demons" operate in open systems, in the midst of a wide availability of free energy and their role consists of channeling the energy transformations governed by information. The main promoter of this idea was JBS Haldane as a result of his research on the function of enzymes. Haldane raises the idea that enzymes are a physical realization of Maxwell's demons and how these devices operate using information to generate order (Haldane 1930). This initial idea of Haldane was taken up by other biologists, from whose work a good part of our understanding of the processes that regulate gene expression and fluxes in metabolic systems emerged, in particular André Lwoff, Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob. The objective of the present work is to consider and to generalize Haldane's idea.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |