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SUMMARY:Statistical Physics and The Arrow of Life - Professor Mike Cates
DTSTART:20190312T180000Z
DTEND:20190312T200000Z
UID:TALK119464@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Maya Ben Yami
DESCRIPTION:The arrow of time' is set by the second law of thermodynamics:
  entropy increases until a steady state of thermal equilibrium is reached.
  Once it is reached\, movies of the system look the same running forward a
 nd backwards. Living systems are nowhere near thermal equilibrium and yet 
 can reach steady-state behaviour -- at least for a while. But now there is
  generally an obvious difference between forward and backward motion: the 
 'arrow of life'. Under some conditions though\, especially if one is looki
 ng at the system from afar so that the local details disappear\, forward a
 nd backward behaviour can look almost the same. Life then impersonates the
 rmal equilibrium while still being nowhere near it. I will talk about rece
 nt research aimed at quantifying this effect: How do we know whether life'
 s movie is running backwards?
LOCATION:Pfizer Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry\, Lensfield Road
 \, Cambridge
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