living systems and 2nd law of thermo??????

[mll6 at Lehigh.EDU]

In article <444k20$45i at ixnews6.ix.netcom.com>, rray at ix.netcom.com (ROMAN RAY ) w
rites:
>  Living sytems have order.  Why does this not violate the second law
>of thermodynamics?????
>
My undergrad understanding: because living things on a cellular metabolism
level can couple their metabolic chemical reactions so that 'order-building'
and 'order-destroying' are combined (e.g. glucose is oxidized to help make ATP
(high-energy molecule) and the ATP made is used to fuel synthesis of other
stuff).  Working cyclically, disorder is averted within the organism at the
expense of the environment's order.

Check a bio-text book for a better explanation :*>.