Alive or Not Alive: Entropy and Living Things
A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Entropy and Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 93
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Every living thing is a highly specific and complex system, far from thermodynamic equilibrium, characterized by strong self-adaptation and entropy dissipation. Understanding these properties is crucial for distinguishing living organisms from non-living systems, such as tornadoes or snowflakes. While biology and medicine have long been at the forefront of exploring the mysteries of life, physics also offers valuable tools and perspectives that can contribute to unraveling these fundamental questions.
For many years, physicists have been developing the field of stochastic thermodynamics, which provides a deeper understanding of the physical principles governing life. This rapidly evolving discipline sheds new light on how organisms generate and regulate their entropy, how self-adaptation functions, why certain external stressors can have beneficial effects, and even how life might have emerged in the first place. By applying concepts from nonequilibrium physics, researchers are gradually piecing together a coherent framework that connects fundamental physical laws with biological processes.
Although the mathematical formalism used in these studies can be conceptually challenging, it remains relatively simple and practical for real-world applications. This accessibility allows for broader interdisciplinary research, bridging physics, biology, and related sciences in a shared effort to decipher the nature of life.
This Special Issue represents a significant step forward in these investigations. By exploring entropy-driven mechanisms, nonequilibrium dynamics, and the role of external perturbations, we move closer to a physics-based definition of what it means to be alive. We hope that future advances in nonequilibrium physics and entropy analysis will bring us even closer to understanding the physical foundations of life and its origins.
Dr. Krzysztof Wojciech Fornalski
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- nonequilibrium statistical physics
- stochastic thermodynamics
- entropy dissipation
- dissipative adaptation
- self-adaptation
- adaptive response
- physics of life
- nonlinear dynamics
- complex systems
- far-from-equilibrium
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
