oxymoronic statement?

[arthurdent]

Hello,

I have come across this sentence:

This suggests that a trend towards disorder over time is a conserved property of decay in fruit.

I am wondering - does it make sense? I completely understand what it means. (Everything tends toward higher entropy.) But can you really use the word "conserved" in this case? I want to hear from native speakers (Americans, ideally). Am I too puristic? Or am I absolutely wrong?

 

[GoesStation]

I would guess this is from an academic text, and that conserved property is a fixed phrase in whatever field of study it applies to.

 

[Tdol]

A Google search suggests that the term is used in some similar scientific contexts.