Structuring information and entropy: Catalyst as information carrier

Abstract

Many authors tried to exploit the similarities between expressions of the statistical thermodynamics for the entropy and those of Shannon's information theory. In a new approach, we highlight the role of information involved in chemical systems, in particular in the interaction between catalysts and reactants, what we call structuring information. By means of examples, we present some applications of this concept to the biosphere, by visiting a very vast domain going from the appearance of life on earth to its present evolution. © 2006 by MDPI.