Energy cost of biological accuracy and timekeeping
Cells copy DNA, build proteins and keep time with error rates far below what chemical equilibrium would allow, by burning fuel such as ATP. Physics asks what minimum fuel cost a given accuracy or timing precision requires, and how close cells come to it.
Why it matters
These costs set basic limits on the speed, fidelity and energy budget of every living cell.
Review
Andre C. Barato, Udo Seifert, Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relation for Biomolecular Processes, Physical Review Letters, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.158101 reference checked
Timestamp record
- Signed record
- fa5a2b5a5ef3…
- Public log
- Entry 79, in checkpoint 2,123
- In the log by
- Block 969,698, 2026-10-03
This text was in the PubPhys log by that date. The date says nothing about when the problem was first posed.