Thermodynamics of Computational Copying in Biochemical Systems

Synopsis

Thomas E. Ouldridge, Christopher C. Govern, and Pieter Rein ten Wolde
Phys. Rev. X 7, 021004 – Published 7 April 2017

Blurb:
A long paper with a short message:  Ouldridge et al. show how to map models of biochemical networks that sense the environment via receptor proteins onto the language of computation and thermodynamics.  These networks can come close to but never reach Landauer’s thermodynamic bound.  They have extra dissipation, no matter how slowly they are carried out.  However, exogenously controlled artificial networks could reach such limits.