Question

If entropy can only increase in a closed system, then how can life grow more complex...

If entropy can only increase in a closed system, then how can life grow more complex over time on Earth? Doesn't this violate the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics? Explain?

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Answer #1

If the life becomes more complex, it of course reduces entropy as the cells are more organised. But that does not mean that the overall entropy has decreased. In the process of organisation, the entropy of surrounding will be increased by larger amount that the decrease in the entropy of the organised cell. This will be due to energy lost to the surrounding in the process. The second law does not restrict the decrease in the entropy of some system in some process as long as it is increasing entropy at some other place by larger amount. As a result net entropy of the universe still increase even though entropy of some part of universe decreases.

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