The second law of thermodynamics states that disorder a set of objects left to themselves (ie single) or entropy can only increase with time.

We will see that it is not contrary to the second principle that sometimes the order increases. We will take a simple example, and yet very relevant. That is what I found best answer to my dad, who once forced me to keep my room ...

Finally, keep her room, put it a little more order, ultimately, reduce the entropy. It is perfectly true. Only, and you have seen many times, your room does not arrange itself - we have you had to repeat it. Yes. It is you who are going to tidy up your room. But it will take time, especially, energy. You are going to spend the energy to do so. For example, if you fold a sweater to put on your shelf, the pull will have increased its potential energy. You have read, but in doing so, you also warm part of the energy you've spent has been transformed into thermal agitation. And the thermal agitation, it is a much bigger mess than pull the ground, in terms of entropy!

So your room is row, yes, it has a decreased entropy, also yes. But if it does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics, because it has not been left to itself: it did not row alone, you are involved, it is not a system isolated. So the second principle was not violated. On the contrary, you've wasted the energy to do so. So you have increased the disorder of the universe in general, it is indeed an isolated system. So storing her room inevitably leads to increasing disorder in the universe! If after that you can still force you to store anything!

Another example of higher order in the universe, of course, life a living being is a very complex construction, and very orderly. How is it that when life appears as the second principle says that the disorder must increase? Well is that living beings are not isolated. Actually a living being isolated as a mouse in an airtight container, ends quickly die. To maintain the living things need an external energy. In fact, they benefit from the waste environment.

Imagine, in fact, there are no plants. Sunlight merely serve to warm the earth, and that's all. It would be lost. Or plants in the receiving, using his energy to live. They store this energy in their leaves. The animals eat the leaves, with the drawing of energy. Energy that ultimately, they spend moving, etc ... So the sun's energy is finally dissipated. However, in the meantime, it was used to living beings. So living beings enjoy the abundance of ambient energy, which would otherwise be wasted, in order to exist. They are like dams they pass water (energy), but they make a reservation, and they slow down his fall (his loss in the form of temperature). They are slowing down in scale the increasing disorder in the universe. And it only works where otherwise much energy would be wasted. As soon as energy is available, the living land: the mold as soon as there is something to develop, etc ...