Living Organisms Increase in Complexity as They Grow, Resulting in a Decrease

question 41

Multiple Choice

Living organisms increase in complexity as they grow, resulting in a decrease in the entropy of an organism. How does this relate to the second law of thermodynamics?

• A) Living organisms do not obey the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an organism increases with each energy transformation.
• B) The decrease in entropy is associated with growth of an organism. As a consequence of growth, organisms cause a greater increase in entropy in their environment than the decrease in entropy associated with their increased complexity.
• C) As a consequence of growth, the decrease in entropy of the organism is associated with a corresponding decrease in the entropy of the universe.
• D) Living organisms are able to transform chemical energy into entropy.

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