Entropy

Many scientists predict that the universe will eventually wind down into a permanent state of entropy. That is, all forms of energy (or activity) will have decentralized themselves and all semblance of cosmic (and maybe even atomic) order will have disappeared. A scientific internet website’s definition of entropy is: “Energy spontaneously disperses from being localized to becoming spread out if it is not hindered from doing so.” (Remember, energy doesn’t really disappear. There is still the thermodynamic law that states that all energy is preserved either in its kinetic form, its potential form, or as electromagnetic radiation.)

Therefore entropy is a complete state of chaos where electromagnetic radiation and energy still exist but are so dispersed as to be effectively non-existent at a singular point. Eventually (billions and billions of years hence), all suns will have burned out … all planetary motion will have ceased … and all knowledge will have been lost. Thus, the antonym for entropy could be (and often is) stated as “organized information”. But, I have a somewhat different take on entropy’s antonym -- I think it is “evolution”. If entropy is the ultimate winding down of information … then evolution is the spontaneous winding up of order … encoded into the billions of DNA chemical pairs of millions of species on this earth (and perhaps on millions of other earth-like planets.) This is complimented by the quadrillions of bytes of information that is stored in our printed and electronic libraries – all enabled by the information encoded in the DNA of humans.

This makes evolution even more unique and, yes, precious – it is a guppy swimming upstream against the tsunami of ever-growing entropy. Thus, there is a race to the death, albeit a multi-billion year race, between physical entropy and biological evolution. I have no idea which one will win this race, but I suspect that our eventual fate is not as predetermined as many today predict.

3 Questions

If entropy is the ultimate fate of our universe, how is it that information and structure (anti-entropy) seems to be ever-growing?

Why does not the progression in the number of electrons at each valence level in an atom behave in a regular and predictable way?

Why is the temperature of absolute zero so absolute? (Can't atoms have negative movement?)

Photosynthesis

To the NY Times Editor,
Your "Observatory" article in the June 21st, 2005 Science Times section talks about photosynthesis taking place near deep-ocean hydrothermal vents using the meager light that eminates from the lava deep inside these vents. The implication from the scientists' quotes in this article is that photons are only present in the visible light spectrum. In fact, photons are indeed produced in the infrared section of the electromagnetic spectrum (produced by the heat eminating from these vents) ... and for that matter across the entire electromagnetic spectrum ... even for radio waves and gamma rays. Therefore, who is to say that photosynthesis may not be able to convert photons at these different energy levels into biological building blocks?
Sincerely,
George W. Potts