THERMODYNAMICS APPLIED IN THE HUMAN BODY

The human body can be considered as an open thermodynamic system, which

must maintain its constant temperature of 37ºC, despite being in a generally lower
temperature environment that could be taken as an average of 15ºC. On the other
hand, it is continuously exchanging material and energy with its surroundings
(metabolism), consuming energy to develop internal and external works, and to
manufacture stable molecules (anabolism) for which it needs to feed itself by
ingesting molecules of great free energy (nutrition) that from certain combustion
reactions they give rise to lower energy products (catabolism).
It has the peculiarity that its entropy is minimal, that is why it is an unstable
thermodynamic system that causes its permanent evolution, that is, life itself.
Precisely death would imply a state of maximum entropy. For the living organism to
be able to maintain itself in this state, it is necessary to eliminate the excess of
entropy that is continually produced inherent to the vital processes: circulation of
blood, respiration, etc.
The first law of thermodynamics tells us that energy is not created or destroyed
only transformed, in living organisms the most frequent reactions are irreversible
and are not made in adiabatic conditions and that is why the application of the laws
of thermodynamics is quite limited, in biological systems the classification process
of the properties of systems is more complicated but in general we can say that
living beings are not systems in equilibrium, these organisms are open organisms
that exchange energy and matter with the environment.
physiopathology of thermoregulation
physiopathology

Living beings comply with the second law of thermodynamics, like any other
physical system, sometimes it is thought that living beings finally die "in
compliance" with the second law, because the growing entropy ends with them.
In the definition of life, from the point of view of thermodynamics, living systems are
localized regions where there is a continuous increase in order without external
intervention. This definition is based on the second principle of thermodynamics,
which says that the entropy or disorder of the universe always increases.
Applied to the study of the cell, since it has to do from the process of feeding and
cellular respiration, from the point of view of the food chain, which from this point of
view is the energy chain; Many times the cell is compared to a factory with raw
material, production process and energy consumption.
When biological physical systems recover energy as information, they do not
"create" information, but only make it available to the system.
In other words, the second law can not explain why the recovery of energy as
information grows (when the system self-organizes), or decays (when the system
declines or ages). Then, why do living beings age? Why do they originate and
organize themselves?
Living beings exchange energy and matter with the environment. Here we are far
from a thermodynamic equilibrium. The processes are irreversible and not
reproducible. The arrow of time is impassable in our organism, as well as in nature.
Systems never return to their former state of order. Here the laws of chaos theory
and non-linearity rule.
Chemical composition of the human body

Knowing how and from what elements the human body is composed is
fundamental to understanding its functioning, its physiological mechanisms and the
way in which its structures interact. It is estimated that 96% of our body is
composed of 4 elements in particular: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen,
mostly in the form of water.

The remaining 4% is composed of a few other elements and we could say that
99% of the body is composed of 6 elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
calcium, and phosphorus.

Oxygen (65%)
60% of body weight is constituted by water. Oxygen (0, 8) occupies the first place
on the list and makes up 65% of the organism.

Carbon (18%)
Carbon (C, 6) is one of the most important elements for life. Through the carbon
bonds, which can be formed and broken with a minimum amount of energy, the
dynamic organic chemistry that occurs at the cellular level is made possible.

Hydrogen (10%)
Hydrogen (H, 1) is the most abundant chemical element in the entire universe.
Something very similar happens in our organism and together with oxygen in the
form of water.

Nitrogen (3%)
Present in many organic molecules, nitrogen (N, 7) constitutes 3% of the human
body. It is found, for example, in the amino acids that form proteins and in the
nucleic acids of our DNA.

Calcium (1.5%)
Of the minerals that make up the organism, calcium (Ca, 20) is the most abundant
and is vital for our development. It is found practically throughout the entire body, in
the bones and for example in the teeth. In addition, they are very important in the
regulation of proteins.

Phosphorus (1%)
Phosphorus (P, 15) is also very important for the bony structures of the body where
it abounds. However, they also predominate in the ATP molecules, providing
energy to the cells.

The human being is a heterogeneous "mixture",

For within the organism we can observe different compositions. For example,
muscles, bones, systems within the system, etc.
Within the human being there are parts that are more homogeneous than others,
for example, blood has a similar composition everywhere. However, even in this
example we can not say, since the concentration of oxygen is different in the blood
before and after passing through the cells, the concentration of metal ions and urea
is different after passing through the kidneys, etc.
PRINCIPLE OF MARGALEF
* Living beings are complex physical systems, integrated by a dissipative system
and a self-organizing system coupled together.

* The principle of Margalef also points out that they are complex physical systems,
systems integrated in turn by smaller systems, a sort of "systems subsumed in
systems".

* None, except living beings, is able to recover the energy that dissipates as
information. Recovering the dissipated energy as information, is the big difference.

* Self organization can be defined as the capacity of the system to generate and /
or modify its own structure, based on the information it recovers from the
dissipated energy itself.

* Not all self-organizing systems are, in turn, homeostatic. Homeostasis in physics

is defined as the "ability of a physical system to overcome disturbances
Human beings do work when walking, running, lifting an object, etc., to do it we
need energy that the organism obtains when transforming the chemical potential
energy of food. For the aforementioned activities, the concept of muscular
efficiency (E) is associated, as the quotient of the mechanical work performed and
the energy supplied to the body, through food. It has been verified that the
muscular efficiency in the mechanical work is approximately 20%, (E = 0.2).

With the feeding we get into the system more ordered molecules, eliminating much
more disorganized (CO2 and H2O)
The transformation of energy in the organism is done by essentially oxidizing
glucose in the breathing process, through molecular mechanisms performed at the
cellular level, at constant and low temperature.
For example, by ingesting 180g of glucose, the most known carbohydrate, and
combining it with 134.4 liters of oxygen, 2858 kJ are released and the energy
content per unit mass would be 15878 kJ / kg. The calorific equivalent of oxygen
would be defined as the energy released between the oxygen consumed or 2858
kJ / 134.4L = 21.25 kJ / L
RADIATION
All hot bodies emit electromagnetic radiation, and the predominant wavelength will
be infrared when the body has a certain temperature. That is, there is a
relationship between the amount of electromagnetic radiation emitted (energy
emitted) and body temperature.
The human body emits radiation whose wavelength is between 5 and 20 microns.
If it is calculated according to the law of Good of radiation, it can be found that the
maximum wavelength emitted (maximum of the radiation curve) is 10 microns, for
a body of about 300K
The human organism is a radiator that has properties similar to that of a black body
that is at the aforementioned temperature (black body is essentially a radiator or
perfect absorber, which is capable of absorbing all wavelengths).