Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective PDF full book. Access full book title Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective by Carl F Jordan. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Carl F Jordan Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030851869 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 383
Book Description
Survival of the fittest” is a tautology, because those that are “fit” are the ones that survive, but to survive, a species must be “fit”. Modern evolutionary theory avoids the problem by defining fitness as reproductive success, but the complexity of life that we see today could not have evolved based on selection that favors only reproductive ability. There is nothing inherent in reproductive success alone that could result in higher forms of life. Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective presents a non-circular definition of fitness and a thermodynamic definition of evolution. Fitness means maximization of power output, necessary to survive in a competitive world. Evolution is the “storage of entropy”. “Entropy storage” means that solar energy, instead of dissipating as heat in the Earth, is stored in the structure of living organisms and ecosystems. Part one explains this in terms comprehensible to a scientific audience beyond biophysicists and ecosystem modelers. Part two applies thermodynamic theory in non-esoteric language to sustainability of agriculture, and to conservation of endangered species. While natural systems are stabilized by feedback, agricultural systems remain in a mode of perpetual growth, pressured by balance of trade and by a swelling population. The constraints imposed by thermodynamic laws are being increasingly felt as economic expansion destabilizes resource systems on which expansion depends.
Author: Carl F Jordan Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030851869 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 383
Book Description
Survival of the fittest” is a tautology, because those that are “fit” are the ones that survive, but to survive, a species must be “fit”. Modern evolutionary theory avoids the problem by defining fitness as reproductive success, but the complexity of life that we see today could not have evolved based on selection that favors only reproductive ability. There is nothing inherent in reproductive success alone that could result in higher forms of life. Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective presents a non-circular definition of fitness and a thermodynamic definition of evolution. Fitness means maximization of power output, necessary to survive in a competitive world. Evolution is the “storage of entropy”. “Entropy storage” means that solar energy, instead of dissipating as heat in the Earth, is stored in the structure of living organisms and ecosystems. Part one explains this in terms comprehensible to a scientific audience beyond biophysicists and ecosystem modelers. Part two applies thermodynamic theory in non-esoteric language to sustainability of agriculture, and to conservation of endangered species. While natural systems are stabilized by feedback, agricultural systems remain in a mode of perpetual growth, pressured by balance of trade and by a swelling population. The constraints imposed by thermodynamic laws are being increasingly felt as economic expansion destabilizes resource systems on which expansion depends.
Author: Jeremy England Publisher: Basic Books ISBN: 1541699009 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 185
Book Description
A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life. Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren't. And everything that is alive traces back to things that, puzzlingly, weren't. For centuries, the scientific question of life's origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems. But how life began isn't just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe. In the tradition of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Every Life Is on Fire is a profound testament to how something can come from nothing.
Author: Karo Michaelian Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781541366718 Category : Languages : en Pages : 422
Book Description
How did life on Earth arise? This question has captured the imagination of curious minds ever since the dawn of humanity. Countless myths have been told, but a plausible scientific explanation has resisted 160 years of vigorous research since Darwin. Now, for the first time in this book, physicist Karo Michaelian reviews a bold new theory founded on non-equilibrium thermodynamic principles. As with all irreversible processes, life could only arise, proliferate, and evolve by dissipating an external generalized chemical potential. Michaelian identifies this external potential as the ultraviolet (UV-C) photon potential arriving at Earth's surface during the Archean and the fundamental molecules of life as "self-organized" microscopic dissipative structures, i.e. pigments in the UV-C. The theory is drawing a lot of attention because of its ability to explain many of the salient characteristics of the fundamental molecules of life and because it provides a reason for the evolution of a complex biosphere. Large amounts of empirical data from epochs all the way back to the beginning of life and from some of Michaelian's own experiments all support the new theory. The implications are serious for many contemporary paradigms concerning life and evolution. Even the cherished Darwinian paradigm, with its implicit metaphysical "will to survive," selection only at the level of the organism, and the inescapable tautology in "survival of the survivors" (irrespective of Popper's recanting) must be reformulated on thermodynamic principles, and the way to accomplish this is presented in the book. Michaelian concludes that life similar, and not so similar, to our own should exist everywhere in the Universe wherever there exists the organic elements, UV-C light, and a dissipative solvent medium. In fact, he suggests that we have already discovered extraterrestrial life on other planets of our own solar system, and even within the galactic interstellar clouds of gas and dust, but have yet to recognize it as such under the old paradigms. A program for best searching for this extraterrestrial life at the different stages of its dissipation development is detailed within the book. Karo Michaelian has Ph.D. in physics from the University of Alberta, Canada and has worked at various research institutes throughout the world in topics ranging from nuclear physics and nanoparticles to complex systems and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. His book makes fascinating reading in understandable language for the serious amateur but also contains much detail, including mathematical derivation of thermodynamic principles, for the professional who wants an in-depth understanding. The book contains 422 pages with 140 images and diagrams and 414 references. A detailed historical sketch of origin and evolution of life research is presented and critically analyzed, including; Ideas from Antiquity, Darwinian Theory, the Miller Experiments, the RNA World, Panspermia, and Gaia Theory. The thermodynamic foundations of the new theory are developed in the first 6 chapters and the corroborating evidence presented in the next 12. Another 2 chapters discuss contemporary paradigms in need of reform, and the last discusses dissipative life in other parts of the Universe. Mathematical demonstrations are left to boxes that can be skipped without much loss of continuity of argument. Analogies help to make the theory understandable to those who may not have formal training in mathematics or who lack an understanding of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
Author: John Scales Avery Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 9811250383 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 329
Book Description
This highly interdisciplinary book discusses the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution, against the background of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Among the central themes is the seeming contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems. As the author shows, this paradox has its resolution in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources. Another focus of the book is the role of information in human cultural evolution, which is also discussed with the origin of human linguistic abilities. One of the final chapters addresses the merging of information technology and biotechnology into a new discipline — bioinformation technology.This third edition has been updated to reflect the latest scientific and technological advances. Professor Avery makes use of the perspectives of famous scholars such as Professor Noam Chomsky and Nobel Laureates John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edward Moser to cast light on the evolution of human languages. The mechanism of cell differentiation, and the rapid acceleration of information technology in the 21st century are also discussed.With various research disciplines becoming increasingly interrelated today, Information Theory and Evolution provides nuance to the conversation between bioinformatics, information technology, and pertinent social-political issues. This book is a welcome voice in working on the future challenges that humanity will face as a result of scientific and technological progress.
Author: Axel Kleidon Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1316558592 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 397
Book Description
Thermodynamics sets fundamental laws for all physical processes and is central to driving and maintaining planetary dynamics. But how do Earth system processes perform work, where do they derive energy from, and what are the limits? This accessible book describes how the laws of thermodynamics apply to Earth system processes, from solar radiation to motion, geochemical cycling and biotic activity. It presents a novel view of the thermodynamic Earth system explaining how it functions and evolves, how different forms of disequilibrium are being maintained, and how evolutionary trends can be interpreted as thermodynamic trends. It also offers an original perspective on human activity, formulating this in terms of a thermodynamic, Earth system process. This book uses simple conceptual models and basic mathematical treatments to illustrate the application of thermodynamics to Earth system processes, making it ideal for researchers and graduate students across a range of Earth and environmental science disciplines.
Author: Michal Pavelka Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG ISBN: 3110350955 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
One common feature of new emerging technologies is the fusion of the very small (nano) scale and the large scale engineering. The classical environment provided by single scale theories, as for instance by the classical hydrodynamics, is not anymore satisfactory. The main challenge is to keep the important details while still be able to keep the overall picture and simplicity. It is the thermodynamics that addresses this challenge. Our main reason for writing this book is to explain such general viewpoint of thermodynamics and to illustrate it on a very wide range of examples. Contents Levels of description Hamiltonian mechanics Irreversible evolution Reversible and irreversible evolution Multicomponent systems Contact geometry Appendix: Mathematical aspects
Author: Stanislaw Sieniutycz Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0128093390 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 740
Book Description
Thermodynamic Approaches in Engineering Systems responds to the need for a synthesizing volume that throws light upon the extensive field of thermodynamics from a chemical engineering perspective that applies basic ideas and key results from the field to chemical engineering problems. This book outlines and interprets the most valuable achievements in applied non-equilibrium thermodynamics obtained within the recent fifty years. It synthesizes nontrivial achievements of thermodynamics in important branches of chemical and biochemical engineering. Readers will gain an update on what has been achieved, what new research problems could be stated, and what kind of further studies should be developed within specialized research. - Presents clearly structured chapters beginning with an introduction, elaboration of the process, and results summarized in a conclusion - Written by a first-class expert in the field of advanced methods in thermodynamics - Provides a synthesis of recent thermodynamic developments in practical systems - Presents very elaborate literature discussions from the past fifty years
Author: Ingo Müller Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 1468404474 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 238
Book Description
Physicists firmly believe that the differential equations of nature should be hyperbolic so as to exclude action at a distance; yet the equations of irreversible thermodynamics - those of Navier-Stokes and Fourier - are parabolic. This incompatibility between the expectation of physicists and the classical laws of thermodynamics has prompted the formulation of extended thermodynamics. After describing the motifs and early evolution of this new branch of irreversible thermodynamics, the authors apply the theory to mon-atomic gases, mixtures of gases, relativistic gases, and "gases" of phonons and photons. The discussion brings into perspective the various phenomena called second sound, such as heat propagation, propagation of shear stress and concentration, and the second sound in liquid helium. The formal mathematical structure of extended thermodynamics is exposed and the theory is shown to be fully compatible with the kinetic theory of gases. The study closes with the testing of extended thermodynamics through the exploitation of its predictions for measurements of light scattering and sound propagation.
Author: Yasar Demirel Publisher: Newnes ISBN: 0444595813 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 787
Book Description
Natural phenomena consist of simultaneously occurring transport processes and chemical reactions. These processes may interact with each other and may lead to self-organized structures, fluctuations, instabilities, and evolutionary systems. Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics, Third Edition emphasizes the unifying role of thermodynamics in analyzing the natural phenomena. This third edition updates and expands on the first and second editions by focusing on the general balance equations for coupled processes of physical, chemical, and biological systems. The new edition contains a new chapter on stochastic approaches to include the statistical thermodynamics, mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics, fluctuation theory, information theory, and modeling the coupled biochemical systems in thermodynamic analysis. This new addition also comes with more examples and practice problems. - Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field - Contributions from leading authorities and industry experts - A useful text for seniors and graduate students from diverse engineering and science programs to analyze some nonequilibrium, coupled, evolutionary, stochastic, and dissipative processes - Highlights fundamentals of equilibrium thermodynamics, transport processes and chemical reactions - Expands the theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and its use in coupled transport processes and chemical reactions in physical, chemical, and biological systems - Presents a unified analysis for transport and rate processes in various time and space scales - Discusses stochastic approaches in thermodynamic analysis including fluctuation and information theories - Has 198 fully solved examples and 287 practice problems - An Instructor Resource containing the Solution Manual can be obtained from the author: [email protected]
Author: Carl F Jordan
Author: Carl F Jordan
Author: Jeremy England
Author: Karo Michaelian
Author: John Scales Avery
Author: Axel Kleidon
Author: Eric D. Schneider
Author: Michal Pavelka
Author: Stanislaw Sieniutycz
Author: Ingo Müller
Author: Yasar Demirel