New review illuminates how thermodynamics sets boundaries for life's functions
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 11-Jul-2025 23:11 ET (12-Jul-2025 03:11 GMT/UTC)
The review bridges physics and biology by analyzing how stochastic thermodynamics—a framework describing energy exchanges in microscopic systems—helps explain limitations across diverse biological functions.
A new study has found that the world’s finest yodellers aren’t from Austria or Switzerland, but the rainforests of Latin America.
Published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and led by experts from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, England, and the University of Vienna, the research provides significant new insights into the diverse vocal sounds of non-human primates, and reveals for the first time how certain calls are produced.
The researchers have discovered that special anatomical structures called vocal membranes allow monkeys to introduce “voice breaks” to their calls. These have the same rapid transitions in frequency heard in Alpine yodelling, or in Tarzan’s famous yell, but cover a much wider frequency range.