Free-energy transduction, the basic physical process underlying the phenomena of life has been described by non-equilibrium thermodynamics. However, the possibility of a thermodynamic description of the very first step, the conversion of solar energy to the free energy of the living material, has been questioned on the basis of an apparent lack of microscopic reversibility of light absorption/emission. We develop a description of light absorption that is consistent with non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
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Meszéna et al. (1999) studied this question.
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