Abstract
SINCE 1934, the present reviewer has advanced the conception of the organism as an 'open system'. So far, physical chemistry has been concerned almost exclusively with reactions and equilibria in closed systems, while living organisms are open systems, maintaining themselves in a continuous exchange of materials with environment. We have stressed the necessity for an extension of physical chemistry, stated kinetic principles, and demonstrated that the theory of open systems leads to the derivation of fundamental biological characteristics as well as to quantitative laws of biological phenomena1. It has also been emphasized that "according to definition, the second law of thermodynamics applies only to closed systems, it does not define the steady state".
Ètude thermodynamique des phénomènes irréversibles
Par I. Prigogine. Pp. ix+143. (Paris: Libr. Dunod; Liège: Éditions Desoer, 1947.)
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References
V. Bertalanffy, L., Naturwiss., 28. 522 (1940); "Theoretische Biologie", 2 (Berlin, 1942); further work by Burton, Spiegelman and Reiner, Dehlinger and Wertz, Prigogine and Wiame, and others.
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VON BERTALANFFY, L. Ètude thermodynamique des phénomènes irréversibles. Nature 163, 384 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163384a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163384a0
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