Kondepudi Dilip, Kay Bruce, Dixon James
Department of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
CESPA and Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA.
Chaos. 2017 Oct;27(10):104607. doi: 10.1063/1.5001195.
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.
非平衡系统中的自组织导致耗散结构的形成，这已在各种系统中得到研究，最突出的是在化学系统中。我们展示了一项关于电压驱动的耗散结构的研究，该结构由浸没在油的粘性介质中的导电珠组成。在这个简单的系统中，我们观察到了非常复杂的类似生物体的行为。耗散结构由一种树状结构组成，它会自发形成并像蠕虫一样移动，展现出许多生物体特有的特征。由外加场驱动的珠子的复杂运动、珠子之间的偶极 - 偶极相互作用以及粘性介质的流体动力流，导致树状结构随时间演化为电阻更低或耗散更高的状态，从而产生更高的熵产生率。由此产生的向终性演化表现为树状结构移动到寻求更高电流的位置，这种电流维持其结构和动态。对耗散结构中的向终性演化的研究为我们提供了一种区分机器和生物体之间根本差异的方法，并为构建生物体物理学开辟了一条道路。
