« Sisyphean Labor »
Sunday, September 11, 2011 "According to the laws of thermodynamics, biological processes will tend to go from a high-energy to a low-energy condition, losing energy in the process, until equilibrium between the organism and the environment is achieved – the state of death and decay – unless energy is available to drive and maintain the reaction in the reverse direction.
Living organisms are in an unstable thermodynamic state and require energy to keep chemical constituents in a highly ordered condition and to do work against the thermochemical energy gradient. This is needed to accumulate matter, chemical constituents such as ions or gases from the environment which are required for metabolism, growth and development, or to move, et cetera, all of which characterize the living state in contrast to the world of inanimate matter.”
To live, then, is to climb the energy gradient. Sisyphean labor.
[David Lawlor | Photosynthesis, Third Edition | Springer 2011 | p 2]