Laws of thermodynamics in living systems Original Scenario-Based Practice

Questions

1. 1.

   Astrobiologists studying the crystalline organism Vitreus lumina inside an isolated, dark orbital habitat observe that it continuously maintains an exquisitely ordered internal lattice of macromolecules while consuming chemical nutrient fluid. Over several metabolic cycles, sensitive thermal and particle sensors register a sustained release of disorganized thermal energy and fragmented by-products into the surrounding incubation medium. Which statement correctly evaluates this organism's metabolic activity in terms of the laws of thermodynamics?

   • A) The organism violates the second law of thermodynamics by locally decreasing its internal entropy without an external source of radiant energy.
   • B) The organism obeys the second law of thermodynamics because the entropy increase in its surrounding environment exceeds the local entropy decrease within its cells.
   • C) The organism operates in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium because it transforms chemical potential energy into heat at an efficiency rate of one hundred percent.
   • D) The organism violates the first law of thermodynamics because generating highly organized macromolecular lattices produces novel energy from cellular mass.

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