Thermodynamics and Self-Organization in Living Systems

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue emphasizes the crucial role that thermodynamics can play in understanding the thermodynamic coupling between chemical reactions and the transport of substances in bioenergetics that may lead to self-organization. Thermodynamics has the advantages of identifying possible pathways, providing a measure of the efficiency of energy conversion, and of the thermodynamic coupling between various processes without requiring a detailed knowledge of the underlying mechanisms for such coupling. Through thermodynamic coupling, a flow can occur without or against its conjugate force if the cross coefficients do not vanish.

As living systems grow and develop, supply of material, energy, and information (in addition to inherited information) are necessary for establishing organized structures for the ability of reproduction and surviving in changing conditions. Maintaining a state of organization requires a number of coupled metabolic reactions and transport processes with mechanisms controlling the rate in space and time of the living systems. As Schrodinger proposed, these processes appear to be at variance with the second law of thermodynamics, which states that a finite amount of organization may be obtained at the expense of a greater amount of disorganization in a series of interrelated (coupled) spontaneous changes.

Prof. Yasar Demirel
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• thermodynamic analysis
• bioenergetics
• self-organization
• thermodynamic coupling
• thermodynamic buffering