Living Systems Must Work to Remain Ordered

Question

Living systems must work to remain ordered. They pass off their disorder in the form of
A)light.
B)sound.
C)heat.
D)water.

Accepted Answer

Living systems must obey the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the total entropy (or disorder) of a closed system always increases over time. To maintain their internal order, organisms must continuously export or dissipate entropy in the environment. One of the most common ways that living systems do this is by generating heat. In other words, they convert chemical energy (e.g., from food) into thermal energy, which is then released to the surroundings. Other forms of entropy export that also occur in living systems are the release of water vapor when breathing, the shedding of dead skin, or the excretion of waste products. However, heat is by far the primary way that living systems pass off their disorder to the surroundings.