Dissipative structures in nature and human systems

Abstract

Evolutionary physics studies the general behaviour of non equilibrium systems, subject to non-linear rules. Through the observation of these systems, physical chemistry begins to understand phenomena that have complex and self-organising behaviour. In practice, in order to understand life and its ability to self-organise, evolutionary physical chemistry studies phenomena which present novelties, i.e., in which order is horn from chaos (order out of chaos is an expression dear to the school of Ilya Prigogine, father of evolutionary physics and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977). This paper presents a discussion on self-organization processes in dissipative structures, in order to highlight the general conditions for raising complexity and generating order in nature. In particular, variation of entropy and thermodynamic information in self-organizing systems were briefly introduced. Examples of dissipative structures in nature were presented, such as oscillatory reactions, hurricanes, and also human society. This would inform next generation designers.