8/31/2023 0 Comments Can entropy decrease![]() ![]() ![]() In thermodynamic terms, the process of self-assembly passes from one equilibrium state to another equilibrium state through infinitesimally small steps. The microscopic process that is being described is molecular self-assembly. In this study of molecular self-assembly, systems are biological systems, such as the interior of a cell of an organism, and the macromolecules constitute a subsystem. In thermal physics, the ideal system is an isolated whole which contains the matter being studied, and is assumed to be at equilibrium, with state variables, such as temperature, constant. Michael Sprackling in the book “Thermal Physics” stresses the importance of defining the system and processes that science is describing 1. An important point to note is that when a macromolecule self-assembles, such as the folding of a large protein molecule, the molecule becomes more ordered and the local entropy decreases, however, the entropy of the entire system (molecule and environment) must increase by the second law. To better understand the molecular self-assembly process, and statistical models of this process, I will be focusing on entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. This system must obey the statistical laws of thermodynamics: the first law of thermodynamics has to do with the conservation of energy and the second law has to do with increasing entropy with time. The macromolecule represents a thermodynamic subsystem, and together with its immediate environment, constitutes an idealized thermodynamic system. The microscopic activity for this study is the self-assembly of large macromolecules. The macroscopic properties might be the temperature, representing the system's internal energy, the volume, which is inversely related to the pressure, or the entropy, a measure of the system's disorder. Statistical Physics is interested in understanding the macroscopic properties of microscopic activities. ![]()
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