The formula of life by Ilya Prigogine , Nobel laureate, 2003

Today we enjoy some things that happen in nature and society, as well as we have some concerns about our life for the future.

Together with my colleague, Prof. Sergey Travin, I was discussing the other day about "Ilya Prigogine 's formula of life ", which refers to the concept of "dissipative structure" and was developed in the field of thermodynamics and physical chemistry by Prigogine and his collaborators in the years 1970. This formula illustrates how open systems, i.e. systems that interact and exchange energy and matter with their surroundings, can exhibit complex and self-organized behaviours over time. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003 for this discovery.

    Prigogine 's life formula can be expressed as follows:

dissipative structures = self-organization + fluctuations +

 exchange of energy and matter

    Dissipative structure refers to certain open physical systems that are able to maintain order and stability despite continuous interaction with their surrounding environment.

    These systems can evolve into new orders and structures through self-organizing processes.

    Fluctuations represent changes in the state of the system over time, which are the result of its interaction with the environment. These fluctuations can play a crucial role in the initiation of self-organization processes and the emergence of complex structures.

    The constant exchange of energy and matter with the surrounding environment is essential for the maintenance and evolution of dissipative structures. Through these exchanges, the system can assimilate energy and matter from its environment and eliminate decay products and waste resulting from internal processes, according to Schrödinger's postulate: "living organisms pump negentropy (order) into their environment through their metabolic processes and interaction with the environment".

    For example, plants use solar energy for photosynthesis and transform raw materials into complex organic substances. Animal organisms, in turn, consume these organic substances, releasing waste and energy through respiration, thus maintaining their metabolism and internal order.

    The logistic evolution of life: In the struggle for survival, the species with the highest conversion rate of free energy into biomass wins, figure below.

    These curves are described by the following mathematical formula: 

 where:

r – fertility rate,

m - mortality rate

K - the "carrying capacity" of the environment, that is, how many people the environment can feed.

     For any initial value of the number of individuals N(X)₀ , the population size reaches the stationary value:

    The quantitative formula for the Darwinian idea of the survival of the "fittest" species is: the most adapted is the species in which the value of (K – m/r) is higher at a given time.

     Hence Ilya Prigogine 's formula of life follows :

 

     Prigogine 's formula of life emphasizes that vital processes and complex behaviours can occur in open systems, where the flow of energy and matter is constant and interaction with the environment plays an important role. This approach made significant contributions to the understanding of biological, social, and economic phenomena, and laid the foundation for a new field of research known as thermodynamics of open (ecological) systems.

President of the Chemical Society of Republic of Moldova, 

Acad. Prof. Gheorghe DUCA