Negentropy
Overview
Entropy
Entropy is a thermodynamic property that can be used to determine the energy available for useful work in a thermodynamic process, such as in energy conversion devices, engines, or machines. Such devices can only be driven by convertible energy, and have a theoretical maximum efficiency when...
that it exports to keep its own entropy low; it lies at the intersection of entropy and life
Entropy and life
Research concerning the relationship between the thermodynamic quantity entropy and the evolution of life began in around the turn of the 20th century...
. The concept and phrase "negative entropy" were introduced by Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
in his 1943 popular-science book What is Life?
What is Life? (Schrödinger)
What Is Life? is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943, under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin...
Later, Léon Brillouin
Léon Brillouin
Léon Nicolas Brillouin was a French physicist. He made contributions to quantum mechanics, radio wave propagation in the atmosphere, solid state physics, and information theory.-Early life:...
shortened the phrase to negentropy, to express it in a more "positive" way: a living system imports negentropy and stores it.
