Diffusion in membranes

TY - CHAP

T1 - Diffusion in membranes

AU - Vattulainen, Ilpo

AU - Mouritsen, Ole G.

PY - 2005/12/1

Y1 - 2005/12/1

N2 - Nature is always in motion. As simple as it is, this statement is true in the sense that numerous phenomena in living systems are characterized by nonequilibrium. Our muscles are in constant need of energy provided by the metabolic pathway, the blood flows in our veins as long as the heart keeps going, and yet old cells are constantly being replaced by fresh ones as a typical life time of a cell is on the order of one day. The state of living beings can therefore only rarely be described by equilibrium. However, even if a true equilibrium were possible in living systems, we would find spontaneous thermal fluctuations to occur around the equilibrium state, again implying that the matter were moving in time.

AB - Nature is always in motion. As simple as it is, this statement is true in the sense that numerous phenomena in living systems are characterized by nonequilibrium. Our muscles are in constant need of energy provided by the metabolic pathway, the blood flows in our veins as long as the heart keeps going, and yet old cells are constantly being replaced by fresh ones as a typical life time of a cell is on the order of one day. The state of living beings can therefore only rarely be described by equilibrium. However, even if a true equilibrium were possible in living systems, we would find spontaneous thermal fluctuations to occur around the equilibrium state, again implying that the matter were moving in time.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80051656504&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/3-540-30970-5_12

DO - 10.1007/3-540-30970-5_12

M3 - Book chapter

AN - SCOPUS:80051656504

SN - 3540200436

SN - 9783540200437

SP - 471

EP - 509

BT - Diffusion in Condensed Matter

PB - Springer Berlin/Heidelberg

ER -