“Insert d”, page 1
d.1 d.1 Open structure molecules- introduction.
d.2 Activation energy.
d.3 Four clues.
d.4 Another manifestation of the matter.
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Open structure molecules.
.1 “Open structure molecules” are those which, without changing their chemical composition, change their configurations, and their energy content, along with their physical behaviour, in configurational reactions, triggered by a low entropy activation energy (see next page).
.2 Examples of “open structure molecules” are those presented in this study: water, and EFAs (essential fatty acids) in seeds.
.3 Such molecules may change their level of energy and order, in both directions, thanks to two kinds of reaction, dissipative reactions and reverse ones, both requiring a contextual exchange of energy with the outside system, coherently with the kind of reaction.
The dissipative reactions and the reverse ones.
.4 The dissipative reactions can take place only if the ensuing discard energy - produced during the process of lowering the energy levels of the allowed configurations - is dissipated outside the system, contextually (at the very same instant). The most accessible form for our senses that this discard energy takes is the heat.
.5 The molecules that behave as open structures are also subject to reactions reverse with regard to the dissipative ones; it is when they get higher energy configurations.
.6 While the dissipative reactions involve a dispersion of the energy contents and are favoured by a decrease of the temperature, the reverse reactions involve an increase of the energy content, they are favoured by an increase of temperature, and by the passage of time.
The function of the open structure molecules.
.7 The “open structure molecules” are efficient tools to which nature has recourse, in order to restore, through dissipative reactions, orderly states of matter, featuring either low or very low degrees of entropy, at biological temperatures.
On the dissipative structures.
I advice to read also an excellent book on the dissipative structures: Alfred Kastler, Cette étrange matière.
Explanations on this subject can be found also in internet.