Entropy

Entropy is a physical quantity indicating the degree of 'disorder' or 'randomness' in a system. The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy in an isolated system always tends to increase.

Fermentation is fundamentally a process of entropy increase. Ordered soybean protein structures are broken into amino acids, long starch chains are cut into short sugars—large, organized molecules become small, scattered ones. This is entropy increasing.

Yet microorganisms themselves are highly organized entities, maintaining their own order while increasing surrounding entropy. Fermentation is simultaneously a process where 'order becomes disorder' and where 'life maintains order.' This duality is the philosophical depth of fermentation as a phenomenon.