How much energy is needed to keep the stored cellular mass and energy free of errors: Case studies

Abstract

Nobel‐winning scientist Erwin Schrödinger in his study “What is life?” (1934) hypothesized that organisms import energy and export entropy to survive. Since the publication of this study, our knowledge about “how entropy is generated within the body and exported” has increased tremendously. In the 1970s and 1980s, “maintenance energy” was used extensively in microbiological analyses, merely as a proportionality constant relating cellular proliferation to energy utilization. In 2015, Aziz Sancar, Tomas Lindahl, and Paul L. Modrich shared the Nobel prize for their studies regarding DNA repair. In these research works, scientists tried to explain how organisms were trying to reduce the entropy accumulated within their structures. This study assesses different cases of energy utilization by the cellular systems to maintain their reserves error free in the light of the recent findings. In every case, assessed huge energy requirements were found.