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Information about Biological Thermodynamics

This article is about the study of energy transformation in Biology and related subjects. For the body-oriented psychotherapy, see Bioenergetic analysis.
In thermodynamics, biological thermodynamics (Greek: bios = life and logikos = reason + Greek: thermos = heat and dynamics = power) or bioenergetics[1] is the study of energy transformation in the biological sciences. More definitively, biological thermodynamics may be defined as the quantitative study of the energy transductions that occur in and between living organisms, structures, and cells and of the nature and function of the chemical processes underlying these transductions. Biological thermodynamics may address the question of whether the benefit associated with any particular phenotypic trait is worth the energy investment it requires.

History

German-British medical doctor and biochemist Hans Krebs' 1957 book Energy Transformations in Living Matter (written with Hans Kornberg)[2] was the first major publication on the thermodynamics of biochemical reactions. In addition, the appendix contained the first-ever published thermodynamic tables, written by K. Burton, to contain equilibrium constants and Gibbs free energy of formations for chemical species, able to calculate biochemical reactions that had not yet occurred.[3]

Bioenergetics

Growth, development and metabolism are some of the central phenomena in the study of biological organisms. Living cells and organisms must perform work to stay alive, to grow, and to reproduce themselves. The energy concept is useful to explain such biological processes. The ability to harness energy from a variety of metabolic pathways and channellize it into activities of organism is a fundamental property of all living organisms. Sustenance of life is critically dependent on energy transformations; living organisms survive because of exchange of energy within and without.

In a living organism chemical bonds are constantly broken and made to make the exchange and transformation of energy possible. These chemical bonds are most often bonds in carbohydrates, including sugars. Other chemical bonds include bonds in chemical compounds that are important for metabolism, for example, those in a molecule of ATP or fats and oils. These molecules, along with oxygen, are common stores of concentrated energy for the biological processes. One can therefore assert that transformation of energy from a more to a less concentrated form is the driving force of all biological processes or chemical processes that are responsible for the life of a biological organism. Molecular biology and biochemistry are in fact scientific studies concerning the making and breaking of chemical bonds in the molecules found in biological organisms.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics has been applied for explaining how biological organisms can develop from disorder. Even with the application of Onsager reciprocal relations the classical principles of equilibrium thermodynamics show that systems close to equilibrium always develop into states of disorder which are stable to perturbations and cannot explain the occurrence of ordered structures.

Ilya Prigogine developed the methods for the thermodynamic treatment of such systems, he called these systems dissipative systems, because they are formed and maintained by the dissipative processes which take place because of the exchange of energy between the system and its environment and because they disappear if that exchange ceases. They may be said to live in symbiosis with their environment. Energy transformations in biology are primarily due to the chemical synthesis and decompositions that are brought about by the energy absorbed by organisms from sunlight through insolation[4] and photosynthesis. The total energy captured by photosynthesis in green plants from the solar radiation is about 2 x 1023 joules of energy per year.[5] Annual energy captured by photosynthesis in green plants is about 4% of the total sunlight energy which reaches Earth. The energy transformations in biological communities surrounding hydrothermal vents are exceptions. They oxidize sulfur, obtaining their energy via chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis. The oxygen used to do this is photosynthetically derived, but the sulfur in the thermodynamically unstable, non-oxidized state exists due to geothermal energy.

Food, ingested by an organism contains several chemical substances and hence has chemical energy. Not all metabolizable energy is available for the production of ATP[6]. Some energy is utilized during the metabolic processes associated with digestion, absorption and intermediary metabolism of food and can be measured as heat production; this is referred to as dietary-induced thermogenesis (DIT), or thermic effect of food, and varies with the type of food ingested. The predator-prey relationships, food chains, are in effect energy transformations within ecosystems.

The focus of thermodynamics in biology

The field of biological thermodynamics is focussed on thermodynamic applications of the principles of chemical thermodynamics in biology and biochemistry. Principles covered include the first law of thermodynamics, the second law of thermodynamics, Gibbs free energy, statistical thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and on hypotheses of the origin of life. Presently, biological thermodynamics concerns itself with the study of internal biochemical dynamics as: ATP hydrolysis, protein stability, DNA binding, membrane diffusion, enzyme kinetics,[7] and other such essential energy controlled pathways. Thermodynamically, the amount of energy capable of doing work during a chemical reaction is measured quantitatively by the change in the Gibbs free energy. The physical biologist Alfred Lotka attempted to unify the change in the Gibbs free energy with evolutionary theory.

See also

References

1. ^ MeSH Bioenergetics
2. ^ Alberty R (2004). "A short history of the thermodynamics of enzyme-catalyzed reactions". J Biol Chem 279 (27): 27831-6. PMID 15073189. 
3. ^ Hans Krebs - 1935
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ [2]
6. ^ [3]
7. ^ Reactions and Enzymes Chapter 10 of On-Line Biology Book at Estrella Mountain Community College.

Further reading

  • Haynie, D. (2001). Biological Thermodynamics (textbook). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Lehninger, A., Nelson, D., & Cox, M. (1993). Principles of Biochemistry, 2nd Ed (textbook). New York: Worth Publishers.
  • Alberty, Robert, A. (2006). Biochemical Thermodynamics: Applications of Mathematica (Methods of Biochemical Analysis), Wiley-Interscience.

External links

Bioenergetic Analysis is an important part of body psychotherapy (body-oriented psychotherapy) based on the expression of feelings and the re-establishment of energy flow in the body.
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Thermodynamics (from the Greek θερμη, therme, meaning "heat" and δυναμις, dynamis, meaning "power") is a branch of physics that studies the effects of changes in temperature, pressure, and volume on
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energy transformation is often termed as energy conversion, is any process of transforming one form of energy to another. Energy of fossil fuels, solar radiation, or nuclear fuels can be converted into other energy forms such as electrical, propulsive, or heating that are more
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Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, "life"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the scientific study of life.
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phenotype describes the total physical appearance of an organism, as opposed to its genotype. This genotype-phenotype distinction was proposed by Wilhelm Johannsen in 1911 to make clear the difference between an organism's heredity and what that heredity produces.
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Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (August 25, 1900–November 22, 1981) was a German, later British medical doctor and biochemist. Krebs is best known for his identification of two important metabolic cycles: the urea cycle and the citric acid cycle.
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Sir Hans Leo Kornberg, FRS (born 14 January 1928) is a British biochemist.

Early Life, Education and Career

He was born in 1928 in Germany of Jewish parents. In 1939 he left Nazi Germany (though his parents could not), and moved to the care of an uncle in Yorkshire.
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In thermodynamics, the Gibbs free energy (IUPAC recommended name: Gibbs energy or Gibbs function) is a thermodynamic potential which measures the "useful" or process-initiating work obtainable from an isothermal, isobaric thermodynamic system.
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The term cell growth is used in two different ways in biology.

When used in the context of reproduction of living cells the phrase "cell growth" is shorthand for the idea of "growth in cell populations by means of cell reproduction.
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Developmental Biology is the official journal of the Society for Developmental Biology. It publishes research on the mechanisms of development, differentiation, and growth in animals and plants at the molecular, cellular, and genetic levels.
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Metabolism is the complete set of chemical reactions that occur in living cells. These processes are the basis of life, allowing cells to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories.
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Plantae
  • Chromalveolata
  • Heterokontophyta
  • Haptophyta
  • Cryptophyta
  • Alveolata

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    • In thermodynamics, work is the quantity of energy transferred from one system to another without an accompanying transfer of entropy. It is a generalization of the concept of mechanical work in mechanics.
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    energy (from the Greek ενεργός, energos, "active, working")[1] is a scalar physical quantity that is a property of objects and systems of objects which is conserved by nature.
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    biological process is a process of a living organism. Biological processes are made up of any number of chemical reactions or other events that results in a transformation.
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    Life (Biota)

    Domains and Kingdoms
    • Life on Earth (Gaeabionta)
    • Nanobes

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    energy transformation is often termed as energy conversion, is any process of transforming one form of energy to another. Energy of fossil fuels, solar radiation, or nuclear fuels can be converted into other energy forms such as electrical, propulsive, or heating that are more
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    A chemical bond is the physical process responsible for the attractive interactions between atoms and molecules, and that which confers stability to diatomic and polyatomic chemical compounds.
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    Metabolism is the complete set of chemical reactions that occur in living cells. These processes are the basis of life, allowing cells to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories.
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    Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) is a multifunctional nucleotide that is most important as a "molecular currency" of intracellular energy transfer. In this role, ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism.
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    Fat

    Fat may refer to:
    • Fat, a group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water
    • Adipose tissue, an anatomical term for loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes

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    biological process is a process of a living organism. Biological processes are made up of any number of chemical reactions or other events that results in a transformation.
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    biological process is a process of a living organism. Biological processes are made up of any number of chemical reactions or other events that results in a transformation.
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    In a "scientific" sense, a chemical process is a method or means of somehow changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by somebody. Such a chemical process commonly involves a chemical reaction of some sort.
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    Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell,
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    Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms.[1] The word "biochemistry" comes from the Greek word βιοχημεία biochēmeia, which means "the chemistry of life.
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    molecule is defined as a sufficiently stable electrically neutral group of at least two atoms in a definite arrangement held together by strong chemical bonds.[1][2] In organic chemistry and biochemistry, the term molecule
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    Plantae
  • Chromalveolata
  • Heterokontophyta
  • Haptophyta
  • Cryptophyta
  • Alveolata

  • ..... Click the link for more information.
    • Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics concerned with studying time-dependent thermodynamic systems, irreversible transformations and open systems. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, as contrasted with equilibrium thermodynamics, is most successful in the study
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