Series Explanation: Information theory for biologists.

-What is information? How is it measured? How does it explain the evolution of life?

Abstract

Part 5. Actual measurement of the rate of information transmitted along cricket wind sensory neurons is shown. Input-output coherence is measured for the practical calculation of neuronal information, instead of signal-to-noise ratio. The measurement reveals that the sensory neuron can transmit information at the rate of 400 bit per second at its maximum. Energy threshold of the sensory neuron is determined to be at the order of k_BT. Based on these measurements, entropy cost of information in living neuron is also estimated to be very close to the thermo dynamic limit of 0.7k_B per bit of information.