Ervin Bauer (19 October 1890, Lőcse, Hungary – 11 January 1938 Leningrad, Soviet Union) was a Hungarian biologist.

Short Biography

In 1935, Ervin Bauer published a monograph ''Theoretical biology'', in which he described the general thermodynamic features of living systems. His writings became particularly influential for the development of theoretical biology in Russia and several other countries. In 1925 he moved from Hungary to Russia and from 1933 lived in Leningrad. His first wife was a writer

Margit Kaffka Margit Kaffka (10 June 1880 – 1 December 1918) was a Hungarian writer and poet. Called a "great, great writer" by Endre Ady, she was one of the most important female Hungarian authors, and an important member of the Nyugat generation. Her wri ...

(who died in 1918), and his second wife was a mathematician Stefánia Szilárd. Bauer and his wife Stefánia were arrested by NKVD on 4 August 1937, and both were shot on 11 January 1938.

Research

Ervin Bauer formulated the principle of stable non-equilibrium state which he considered as the basic characteristics of living matter. According to Bauer, living systems function in the expense of

non-equilibrium Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with physical systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium but can be described in terms of macroscopic quantities (non-equilibrium state variables) that represent an ext ...

, and the external energy is used not directly to perform work but to support the stable non-equilibrium state. Bauer's principle is incorporated into non-linear thermodynamics of

irreversible processes In science, a process that is not reversible is called irreversible. This concept arises frequently in thermodynamics. All complex natural processes are irreversible, although a phase transition at the coexistence temperature (e.g. melting of i ...

. Living systems in this framework cannot support their organization only due to the influx of external energy, i.e. the ordering internal factor is involved. The activity of living system is fully determined by the internal pattern of its non-equilibrium state and any work performed by the biological system appears as the work of its structural forces. The process of evolution, according to Bauer, corresponds to the increase in external work, which aims to exploit additional resources to maintain living state of evolving biosystems.

References

1890 births 1938 deaths People from Levoča Austro-Hungarian Jews Jewish Hungarian scientists Hungarian biologists Jewish biologists Theoretical biologists Hungarian expatriates in Russia Hungarian emigrants to the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Hungary Jews executed by the Soviet Union Executed Hungarian people 20th-century biologists {{Hungary-bio-stub