Research on the birth and evolution of life are reviewed with reference to the maximum entropy production principle (MEPP). It has been shown that this principle is essential for consistent understanding of the birth and evolution of life. First, a r...
There is little doubt that life’s origin followed from the known physical and chemical laws of Nature. The most general scientific framework incorporating the laws of Nature and applicable to most known processes to good approximation, is that...
This paper develops a thermodynamic entropy-based life prediction model to estimate the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) life of the nickel-based superalloy GH4169 at elevated temperature (650 °C). The gauge section of the specimen was chosen as the therm...
In memoriam Jeffrey S. Wicken (1942–2002)—the evolutionarily minded biochemist, who in the 1970/80s strived for a synthesis of biological and physical theories to fathom the tentative origins of life. Several integrative concepts are worth rememberin...
Cellular automata can simulate many complex physical phenomena using the power of simple rules. The presented methodological platform expresses the concept of programmable matter, of which Newton’s laws of motion are an example. Energy is intro...
Information is probably one of the most difficult physical quantities to comprehend. This applies not only to the very definition of information, but also to the physical entity of information, meaning how can it be quantified and measured. In recent...
Life in the universe originated and is evolving in accordance with the general laws of nature, specifically, the law of temporal hierarchies and the second law of thermodynamics.
The present study provides fundamental information on the resource recyclability of the interconnect assembly, i.e., the steel interconnector and the nickel meshes, from an end-of-life JÜLICH Solid Oxide Cell Stack—F10 design. The intercon...
Humanity’s strive to understand why and how life appeared on planet Earth dates back to prehistoric times. At the beginning of the 19th century, empirical biology started to tackle this question yielding both Charles Darwin’s Theory of Ev...
The paper develops the Life Origination Hydrate Hypothesis (LOH-hypothesis), according to which living-matter simplest elements (LMSEs, which are N-bases, riboses, nucleosides, nucleotides), DNA- and RNA-like molecules, amino-acids, and proto-cells r...
The advanced version of the author’s inversion concept of the origin of terrestrial life and its application for life in the Universe has been substantiated. A key step in the transition to life consists in the thermodynamic inversion of non-li...
The debate on the temperature of the environment where life originated is still inconclusive. Metabolic reactions constitute the basis of life, and may be a window to the world where early life was born. Temperature is an important parameter of react...
The RNA World Hypothesis posits that the first self-replicating molecules were RNAs. RNA self-replicases are, in general, assumed to have employed nucleotide 5ʹ-polyphosphates (or their analogues) as substrates for RNA polymerization. The mechanism...
Understanding the thermodynamics of the duplication process is a fundamental step towards a comprehensive physical theory of biological systems. However, the immense complexity of real cells obscures the fundamental tensions between energy gradients...
The non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the photochemical reaction mechanisms are described which may have been involved in the dissipative structuring, proliferation and complexation of the fundamental molecules of life from simpler and more common p...
This paper develops a non-equilibrium thermodynamic approach to life, with particular regards to the membrane role. The Onsager phenomenological coefficients are introduced in order to point out the thermophysical properties of the cell systems. The...
A living organism can be regarded as a dissipative, self-organizing physical system operating far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Such systems can be effectively described within the framework of Markov jump processes subjected to an external driving...
Life evolved on our planet by means of a combination of Darwinian selection and innovations leading to higher levels of complexity. The emergence and selection of replicating entities is a central problem in prebiotic evolution. Theoretical models ha...
We have proposed that the abiogenesis of life around the beginning of the Archean may have been an example of “spontaneous” microscopic dissipative structuring of UV-C pigments under the prevailing surface ultraviolet solar spectrum. The...
The core autocatalytic cycle of the formose reaction may be enhanced or eroded by the presence of simple molecules at life’s origin. Utilizing quantum chemistry, we calculate the thermodynamics and kinetics of reactions both within the core cyc...
Phosphates are essential for modern metabolisms. A recent study reported a phosphate-free metabolic network and suggested that thioesters, rather than phosphates, could alleviate thermodynamic bottlenecks of network expansion. As a result, it was con...
Thermodynamic disequilibrium is a necessary situation in a system in which complex emergent structures are created and maintained. It is known that most of the chemical disequilibrium, a particular type of thermodynamic disequilibrium, in Earth’s atm...
Through a modern derivation of Planck’s formula for the entropy of an arbitrary beam of photons, we derive a general expression for entropy production due to the irreversible process of the absorption of an arbitrary incident photon spectrum in...
Grape pomace (GP), is the main winemaking by-product and could represent a valuable functional food ingredient being a source of bioactive compounds, like polyphenols. Polyphenols prevent many non-communicable diseases and could contrast the oxidatio...
Recent theoretical developments linking degradation to the thermodynamic concept of entropy have allowed a new approach to modeling all types of degradation. The theory has been successfully applied to wear, fatigue, and numerous other forms of degra...
The basic idea of the RNA world as an early step towards life relies on a molecular evolution process based on self-replicating RNA strands. It is probably the oldest and most convincing model for efficient prebiotic evolution. Obviously, the functio...
This article applies the thermocontextual interpretation (TCI) to open dissipative systems. TCI is a generalization of the conceptual frameworks underlying mechanics and thermodynamics. It defines exergy with respect to the positive-temperature surro...
This paper outlines a thermodynamic theory of biological evolution. Beginning with a brief summary of the parallel histories of the modern evolutionary synthesis and thermodynamics, we use four physical laws and processes (the first and second laws o...
In 2015, I wrote a book with the same title as this article. The book’s subtitle is: “What we know and what we do not know.” On the book’s dedication page, I wrote: “This book is dedicated to readers of popular science b...
This paper offers a discussion of J. G. Ballard’s first four novels, The Wind From Nowhere (1962), The Drowned World (1962), The Drought (1965), and The Crystal World (1966) that centers on their portrayal of environmental transformation. Drawi...
The novelty of this study is to suggest a novel design for electric vehicle charging stations using fuel cell technology. The proposed system benefits from the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) to utilize the exhaust energy of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SO...
Vopson and Lepadatu recently proposed the Second Law of Infodynamics. The law states that while the total entropy increases, information entropy declines over time. They state that the law has applications over a wide range of disciplines, but they l...
Light-duty vehicles are increasingly incorporating plastic materials to reduce production costs and achieve lightweight designs. On average, a conventional car utilizes over 200 kg of plastic, comprising more than 23 different types, which often pres...
Early steps in the origin of life were necessarily connected to the unlikely formation of self-reproducing structures from chaotic chemistry. Simulations of chemical kinetics based on the graded autocatalysis replication domain (GARD) model demonstra...
This study focuses on a typical Brazilian household through the lens of sustainable development, regarding energy demand and GHG emissions. The analysis encompasses both the direct and indirect energy, exergy consumption, and GHG emissions (quantifie...
In previous research, we showed that ‘texts that tell a story’ exhibit a statistical structure that is not Maxwell–Boltzmann but Bose–Einstein. Our explanation is that this is due to the presence of ‘indistinguishability...
In evolutionary biology, attention to the relationship between stochastic organisms and their stochastic environments has leaned towards the adaptability and learning capabilities of the organisms rather than toward the properties of the environment....
The aim of this article was to identify the dependence of the physical aging of PLA-talc-PCL bio-hybrids, with or without a nucleating agent (NA), produced by melt compounding and designed for 3D printing for medium-life applications, on the degree o...
There is renewed interest in hydrogen as an alternative fuel for aero engines, due to their perceived environmental and performance benefits compared to jet fuel. This paper presents a cycle, thermal performance, energy and creep life assessment of h...
Thermodynamics is a physical branch of science that governs the thermal behavior of dynamical systems from those as simple as refrigerators to those as complex as our expanding universe. The laws of thermodynamics involving conservation of energy and...
Theories on life’s origin generally acknowledge the advantage of a semi-permeable vesicle (protocell) for enhancing the chemical reaction–diffusion processes involved in abiogenesis. However, more and more evidence indicates that the orig...
The work presents experimental confirmation of the author's thermodynamic theory of the biological evolution and aging of living beings. It shows that using the law of temporal hierarchies and the second law of thermodynamics, it is easy to describe...
Andean lupin (Lupinus mutabilis) oil is rich in monounsaturated (54.2%) and polyunsaturated (28.5%) fatty acids but has a ω-3:ω-6 ratio (1:9.2) above the recommended values for human health. Sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis) oil presents...
Using a thermodynamic approach, this paper identifies the most critical parts of a car, considering their composition. A total of 11 car parts that contain valuable and scarce materials have been selected using thermodynamic rarity, an indicator that...
The research analyzes technological properties and stability of innovative gel-forming polymeric materials for complex soil conditioning. These materials combine improvements in the water retention, dispersity, hydraulic properties, anti-erosion and...
What kinds of CHOS compounds might be formed in a prebiotic milieu by reducing CO2 in the presence of H2 and H2S? How might the presence of sulfur influence the chemical composition of the mixture? We explore these questions by using first-principles...
One of life’s most striking characteristics is its mental dimension, one whose very existence within a material system has long been a deep scientific mystery. Given the current scientific view that life emerged from non-life, how was it possib...
Degradation, damage evolution, and fatigue models in the literature for various engineering materials, mostly metals and composites, are reviewed. For empirical models established under the framework of Newtonian mechanics, Gurson–Tvergaard–Needleman...
How to predict the evolution of ecosystems is one of the numerous questions asked of ecologists by managers and politicians. To answer this we will need to give a scientific definition to concepts like sustainability, integrity, resilience and ecosys...
How did metabolism arise and evolve? What chemical compounds might be suitable to support and sustain a proto-metabolism before the advent of more complex co-factors? We explore these questions by using first-principles quantum chemistry to calculate...
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