The Degradation and Aging of Biological Systems as a Process of Information Loss and Entropy Increase

Abstract

The problem of the degradation and aging of bioorganisms is herein considered from the viewpoint of statistical physics. Two typical timescales in biological systems—the time of metabolic processes and the time of the life cycle—are used. A kinetic equation describing the small timescales of the systems’ characteristic processes in is proposed. Maintaining a biosystem in a time-stable state requires a constant inflow of negative entropy (negentropy). Ratios are proposed to evaluate the aging and degradation of systems in terms of entropy. As an example, the aging of the epithelium is studied. The connection of our approach to the information theory of aging is discussed, as well as theoretical constructions related to the concept of cooperon and its changing with time.

Keywords

• aging of biological systems
• statistical entropy
• Schrödinger’s concepts
• negentropy feeding
• Kullback–Leibler entropy
• skin age