Biological processes consume energy to drive changes in their internal and external environments. From an abstract perspective, we can think of this cost as arising from the dissipation associated with breaking time-reversal symmetry. Here we explore some new quantitative energetic bounds for specific classes of biological functions dictating exactly how much dissipation is necessary to perform the function. In particular, we examine the role of time-reversal symmetry breaking in the control of thermodynamic systems and the energetic cost of communicating information under physical constraints. The new principles we present are relevant to understanding the energetic budget of processes as diverse as information processing in the brain and E. coli chemotaxis.
Thesis advisor: Ben Machta (benjamin.machta@yale.edu)