Question

It has been said that life violates the second law of thermodynamics. What observations led to such a statement? Why is the statement untrue?

Answer 1

The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy, a measure of disorder, increases during any spontaneous process in an isolated system.

We can view the entire universe as an isolated system, leading to the conclusions that the entropy of the universe is tending to be maximum. However, all living things maintain a highly ordered, low entropy structure. Initially, this might seem like a violation of the second law of thermodynamics, assuming that living things are an isolated system.

However life is not an isolated system, it is very far from it. Life is a completely open system, where both energy and matter continuously flows in and out. Food is processed to provide energy to the cells, to move the muscles, to repair things that break down all of the time inside our bodies. So life is in no way a violation of the 2nd law, it actually fits it very well.