- Conservation of mass-energy: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, they can only be converted from one form to another
- Law of Entropy: all spontaneous events act to increase the total entropy (measurement of disorder/chaos)
- Absolute Zero: absolute zero is removal of all thermal molecular motion
Second Law of Thermodynamics with reference to metabolic processes:
Living organisms constantly use anabolic processes to build highly ordered structures such as proteins, DNA, and membranes. These are endergonic reactions which are not spontaneous and uses up energy. This seems to violate the second law of thermodynamics by decreasing the amount of disorder and increasing the free energy. However, in reality, every 'order' created by anabolic processes are actually followed by an even greater disorder caused as these catabolic processes release energy. The overall (net) free energy is less than 0, more disorder is created, which supports the second law of thermodynamics.
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