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Students encounter a source of possible confusion between the terminology of physics and biology. Whereas the thermodynamic terms " exothermic " and " endothermic " respectively refer to processes that give out heat energy and processes that absorb heat energy, in biology the sense is effectively reversed.
In physics, thermodynamics applies to processes involving a system and its surroundings, and the term "endothermic" is used to describe a reaction where energy is taken "(with)in" by the system (vs. an "exothermic" reaction, which releases energy "outwards"). [12] [13] In biology, thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to maintain its ...
Biological thermodynamics (Thermodynamics of biological systems) is a science that explains the nature and general laws of thermodynamic processes occurring in living organisms as nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems that convert the energy of the Sun and food into other types of energy. The nonequilibrium thermodynamic state of living ...
Homeothermy could have evolved as a way to maintain energy-efficient migration by reducing the need to frequently stop and warm up. Energetic Benefits: Homeothermy might have provided energetic advantages by allowing animals to exploit a wider range of ecological niches and food sources. Warm-blooded animals could have survived in habitats ...
A significant proportion of creatures commonly referred to as "warm-blooded," like birds and mammals, exhibit all three of these categories (i.e., they are endothermic, homeothermic, and tachymetabolic). However, over the past three decades, investigations in the field of animal thermophysiology have unveiled numerous species within these two ...
The reaction is usually endothermic as heat is required to break chemical bonds in the compound undergoing decomposition. If decomposition is sufficiently exothermic, a positive feedback loop is created producing thermal runaway and possibly an explosion or other chemical reaction. Thermal decomposition is a chemical reaction where heat is a ...
Endothermic organisms known as homeotherms maintain internal temperatures with minimal metabolic regulation within a range of ambient temperatures called the thermal neutral zone (TNZ). Within the TNZ the basal rate of heat production is equal to the rate of heat loss to the environment. Homeothermic organisms adjust to the temperatures within ...
The ability to maintain homeostasis at varying temperatures is the most important characteristic in defining an endothermic eurytherm, whereas other, thermoconforming eurytherms like tardigrades are simply able to endure significant shifts in their internal body temperature that occur with ambient temperature changes. [21]