• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: Dissipative structures, machines, and organisms: A perspective
  • Beteiligte: Kondepudi, Dilip; Kay, Bruce; Dixon, James
  • Erschienen: AIP Publishing, 2017
  • Erschienen in: Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5001195
  • ISSN: 1054-1500; 1089-7682
  • Entstehung:
  • Anmerkungen:
  • Beschreibung: <jats:p>Self-organization in nonequilibrium systems resulting in the formation of dissipative structures has been studied in a variety of systems, most prominently in chemical systems. We present a study of a voltage-driven dissipative structure consisting of conducting beads immersed in a viscous medium of oil. In this simple system, we observed remarkably complex organism-like behavior. The dissipative structure consists of a tree structure that spontaneously forms and moves like a worm and exhibits many features characteristic of living organisms. The complex motion of the beads driven by the applied field, the dipole-dipole interaction between the beads, and the hydrodynamic flow of the viscous medium result in a time evolution of the tree structure towards states of lower resistance or higher dissipation and thus higher rates of entropy production. The resulting end-directed evolution manifests as the tree moving to locations seeking higher current, the current that sustains its structure and dynamics. The study of end-directed evolution in the dissipative structure gives us a means to distinguish the fundamental difference between machines and organisms and opens a path for the formulation of physics of organisms.</jats:p>