What are examples of negentropy in physics and chemistry?

Negentropy is essentially the creation or maintenance of order. In physics and chemistry, this is observed when systems become more structured, typically by releasing energy (and thus increasing the entropy of their surroundings).

Examples in Physics

• Crystallization: When a liquid cools and solidifies into a crystal, its atoms move from a disordered, chaotic arrangement (liquid state) to a highly ordered, repeating lattice structure (solid state). This is a massive local decrease in entropy (creation of negentropy). This process is only possible because the system releases latent heat into its environment, increasing the environment's entropy.
• Star Formation: A diffuse cloud of interstellar gas (high entropy) will, under its own gravity, collapse into a dense, highly structured star. This formation of an ordered body is a negentropic process, powered by the release of gravitational potential energy and, later, nuclear fusion, which radiates enormous amounts of high-entropy heat and light into space.
• Phase Transitions: Any transition to a more ordered state, such as gas condensing into a liquid or a material becoming a superconductor, involves a local decrease in entropy.

Examples in Chemistry

• Self-Assembly: In processes like the formation of micelles (where surfactant molecules in water spontaneously organize) or the folding of a protein into its specific 3D functional shape. The molecules move from a random state to a highly specific, ordered structure.
• Chemical Reactions: Some reactions combine simple molecules into more complex, larger molecules (e.g., polymerization). This synthesis represents a decrease in chemical entropy, as the new molecule has a more specific structure than its scattered parts. This is only possible if the reaction is coupled with an energy release (exothermic) or driven by an external energy source (like ATP in biology).