Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Directionality principles in thermodynamics and evolution

L Demetrius1

  • 1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. lloyd@mcz.harvard.edu

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|April 15, 1997
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Mortality plateaus and directionality theory.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2001
Same author

Directionality theory and the evolution of body size.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2001
Same author

Game theory and evolution: finite size and absolute fitness measures.

Mathematical biosciences·2000
Same author

Thermodynamics and evolution.

Journal of theoretical biology·2000
Same author

Role of enzyme-substrate flexibility in catalytic activity: an evolutionary perspective.

Journal of theoretical biology·1998
Same author

Selective neutrality and enzyme kinetics.

Journal of molecular evolution·1997
Same journal

Chemotactic self-organization captures the dynamics of mammalian hair follicle patterning.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Tomographic imaging of superconducting order using particle-hole interference.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Inhibitory potential of autologous neutralizing antibodies sets quantitative limits on the rebound-competent HIV-1 reservoir.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Inferring epidemiological parameters under an infectious phylogeography model with visitor dynamics.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Analytical modeling for suction cup designs for skin-interfaced wearable devices.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Improving cell-free metabolism through direct integration of artificial respiratory chains.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
See all related articles

Evolutionary entropy, a measure of age variation in reproducing organisms, parallels thermodynamic entropy. Under density-dependent conditions, evolutionary entropy increases, mirroring the second law of thermodynamics.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Statistical Physics
  • Thermodynamics

Background:

  • Directionality in biological populations is quantified by evolutionary entropy, reflecting variability in reproducing individual ages.
  • This biological concept shows an isometric relationship with body size.
  • Evolutionary entropy trends are influenced by ecological and demographic factors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze the relationship between directionality principles in evolutionary biology and physical systems.
  • To explore the connection between evolutionary entropy and thermodynamic entropy.
  • To derive an analytic relation between cellular population generation time and temperature.

Main Methods:

  • Parametrization of directionality using evolutionary entropy in replicating organisms.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analysis of evolutionary entropy trends under density-dependent and density-independent conditions.
  • Derivation of an analytic relationship between generation time and temperature for cellular models.

    • Main Results:

    • Evolutionary entropy increases under density-dependent conditions and during slow exponential growth.
    • Rapid exponential growth with low iteroparity leads to decreased evolutionary entropy.
    • Rapid exponential growth with high iteroparity results in random entropy changes.
    • An analytic relation was derived between generation time and temperature for cellular populations.

    Conclusions:

    • The increase in evolutionary entropy under density-dependent conditions serves as a nonequilibrium analogue of the second law of thermodynamics.
    • Generation time, an evolutionary parameter, corresponds to temperature, a thermodynamic variable.
    • This study bridges concepts of directionality in biological evolution and physical systems.