<Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <P> Thus, if entropy is associated with disorder and if the entropy of the universe is headed towards maximal entropy, then many are often puzzled as to the nature of the "ordering" process and operation of evolution in relation to Clausius' most famous version of the second law, which states that the universe is headed towards maximal "disorder". In the recent 2003 book SYNC--the Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order by Steven Strogatz, for example, we find "Scientists have often been baffled by the existence of spontaneous order in the universe . The laws of thermodynamics seem to dictate the opposite, that nature should inexorably degenerate toward a state of greater disorder, greater entropy . Yet all around us we see magnificent structures--galaxies, cells, ecosystems, human beings--that have all somehow managed to assemble themselves ." </P> <P> The common argument used to explain this is that, locally, entropy can be lowered by external action, e.g. solar heating action, and that this applies to machines, such as a refrigerator, where the entropy in the cold chamber is being reduced, to growing crystals, and to living organisms . This local increase in order is, however, only possible at the expense of an entropy increase in the surroundings; here more disorder must be created . The conditioner of this statement suffices that living systems are open systems in which both heat, mass, and or work may transfer into or out of the system . Unlike temperature, the putative entropy of a living system would drastically change if the organism were thermodynamically isolated . If an organism was in this type of "isolated" situation, its entropy would increase markedly as the once - living components of the organism decayed to an unrecognizable mass . </P> <P> Owing to these early developments, the typical example of entropy change ΔS is that associated with phase change . In solids, for example, which are typically ordered on the molecular scale, usually have smaller entropy than liquids, and liquids have smaller entropy than gases and colder gases have smaller entropy than hotter gases . Moreover, according to the third law of thermodynamics, at absolute zero temperature, crystalline structures are approximated to have perfect "order" and zero entropy . This correlation occurs because the numbers of different microscopic quantum energy states available to an ordered system are usually much smaller than the number of states available to a system that appears to be disordered . </P>

In order for a system to be in thermal equilibrium