Entropy Production and Information Flow in Biological Networks
A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Entropy and Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 November 2026 | Viewed by 477
Editors
2. School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Interests: biological relative nonlinear dynamics; microfluidics; pattern formation; systems biology; quantitative biology; non-linear science
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A hallmark of living systems is that they operate far from thermodynamic equilibrium, and this nonequilibrium nature can be quantified through entropy production. Over the past half-century, foundational work in chemistry and physics has established stochastic thermodynamics, mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics, and finite-time thermodynamics as powerful theoretical frameworks that link fluctuations, irreversibility, and energetic cost. These ideas have already provided deep insights into the physical requirements of key biological functions, including kinetic proofreading, adaptation, and signal amplification.
At the same time, major challenges remain. Many existing formalisms rely on near-complete knowledge of system states and transitions—an “all-seeing” description that is rarely accessible in realistic biological networks, where observations are often partial, noisy, and sparse. Addressing this gap is now a central frontier, motivating new approaches for coarse-graining, inference, and uncertainty quantification, and for connecting thermodynamic irreversibility with causal measures of information flow.
This Special Issue, “Entropy Production and Information Flow in Biological Networks,” aims to showcase state-of-the-art advances in both applications and methodology, with particular emphasis on realistic biological systems and data-driven approaches. We welcome contributions spanning theory, computation, and experiment, and we especially encourage work that bridges nonequilibrium thermodynamics, information flow, and biological functions across scales.
Topics of interest include:
- Stochastic thermodynamics;
- Mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics and finite-time thermodynamics;
- Information thermodynamics;
- Entropy production inference from noisy or sparse data;
- Performance–cost trade-offs in signaling pathways;
- Molecular motors or enzymatic networks;
- Active matter in cells and tissues.
Prof. Dr. Qi Ouyang
Dr. Yuansheng Cao
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- stochastic thermodynamics
- entropy production
- information flow
- biological networks
- nonequilibrium systems
- signal transduction
- active matter
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