Question

How do living organisms create macromolecules, organelles, cells, tissues, and complex higher-order structures? select one:

a. living organisms create order using energy from food molecules.
b. living organisms create order by using energy from the sun.
c. living organisms create order locally, but the energy transformations generate waste heat that increases the entropy of the universe as a whole.
d. the laws of thermodynamics do not apply to living organisms?

Answer 1

The correct answer is living organisms create order locally, but the energy transformations generate waste heat that increases the entropy of the universe as a whole.

From energy (i.e. from the sun, the main source of energy), organisms create order locally by creating cells with organized organelles such as the mitochondria, chloroplasts, Golgi apparatus etc. This cells are ordered to make tissues, organs, organ systems, and eventually, whole organisms as higher order structures. But then again, doing so needs several various chemical reactions to take place wherein heat is produced as a waste product. Heat is an unusable form of energy thereby increasing the entropy (or disorder) of the universe.

Answer 2

The answer is that; living organism create order locally, but the energy transformation generate waste heat that increase the entropy of the universe as a whole.
Life is highly ordered, therefore living organism should have much lower entropy than their non-living constituents. Using energy to create and maintain order is one of the key significance of life. Living things act to reduce entropy locally, in the organism, there must be a corresponding increase in entropy somewhere else to offset the reduction.