Author: A.I. Kitaigorodskiy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461575591
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 143
Book Description
Our main aim is to examine whether the atoms and molecules constituting the world around us are distributed in space in a random and disordered fashion, like pebbles on the beach, or in an ordered pattern like the cells of a honeycomb. However, it is often impossible to make such a clear-cut distinction, and it is better not to use "order" and "disorder" as absolute terms but to speak instead of a "degree of order" and a "degree of disorder. " These concepts are fairly new in science. Up to about 20-30 years ago it was still believed (and in fact this belief can still be en countered today) that certain states of matter - such as gases, liquids, and amorphous solids - were characterized by a totally disordered distribution of the constituent particles, whilst crys tals, by contrast, exhibited perfectly ordered lattices. According to the present view, on the other hand, order and disorder often coexist inseparably from each other, though there are admittedly many cases in which "order" or "disorder" does describe quite accurately tbe actual state of affairs. Symptoms of disorder have recently been found in seemingly perfectly regular molecular structures, and symptoms of order in seemingly perfectly chaotic aggregations of particles. These dis coveries led to the formulation of new and important laws cor relating the structure of substances with their properties, and to tIlt' explanation of many phenomena in terms of changes in the degree of order.
Order and Disorder in the World of Atoms
Author: A.I. Kitaigorodskiy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461575591
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 143
Book Description
Our main aim is to examine whether the atoms and molecules constituting the world around us are distributed in space in a random and disordered fashion, like pebbles on the beach, or in an ordered pattern like the cells of a honeycomb. However, it is often impossible to make such a clear-cut distinction, and it is better not to use "order" and "disorder" as absolute terms but to speak instead of a "degree of order" and a "degree of disorder. " These concepts are fairly new in science. Up to about 20-30 years ago it was still believed (and in fact this belief can still be en countered today) that certain states of matter - such as gases, liquids, and amorphous solids - were characterized by a totally disordered distribution of the constituent particles, whilst crys tals, by contrast, exhibited perfectly ordered lattices. According to the present view, on the other hand, order and disorder often coexist inseparably from each other, though there are admittedly many cases in which "order" or "disorder" does describe quite accurately tbe actual state of affairs. Symptoms of disorder have recently been found in seemingly perfectly regular molecular structures, and symptoms of order in seemingly perfectly chaotic aggregations of particles. These dis coveries led to the formulation of new and important laws cor relating the structure of substances with their properties, and to tIlt' explanation of many phenomena in terms of changes in the degree of order.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461575591
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 143
Book Description
Our main aim is to examine whether the atoms and molecules constituting the world around us are distributed in space in a random and disordered fashion, like pebbles on the beach, or in an ordered pattern like the cells of a honeycomb. However, it is often impossible to make such a clear-cut distinction, and it is better not to use "order" and "disorder" as absolute terms but to speak instead of a "degree of order" and a "degree of disorder. " These concepts are fairly new in science. Up to about 20-30 years ago it was still believed (and in fact this belief can still be en countered today) that certain states of matter - such as gases, liquids, and amorphous solids - were characterized by a totally disordered distribution of the constituent particles, whilst crys tals, by contrast, exhibited perfectly ordered lattices. According to the present view, on the other hand, order and disorder often coexist inseparably from each other, though there are admittedly many cases in which "order" or "disorder" does describe quite accurately tbe actual state of affairs. Symptoms of disorder have recently been found in seemingly perfectly regular molecular structures, and symptoms of order in seemingly perfectly chaotic aggregations of particles. These dis coveries led to the formulation of new and important laws cor relating the structure of substances with their properties, and to tIlt' explanation of many phenomena in terms of changes in the degree of order.
Order and Disorder
Author: Myron Kaufman
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1848165749
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
Order and Disorder is a non-mathematical introduction to the most important ideas in science for university students not majoring in a scientific area. The objective is to prepare non-science students for making both life and political decisions involving science and helping them to understand the advances in sciences as covered and reported in the mass media. The book is highly comprehensive in physics and chemistry, and provides the essential background to discuss and gain a better appreciation of selected topics in biological and neurological sciences, as well as astronomy and geology. The topics are integrated with the recurring theme of order and disorder, the organization achieved in the face of the never-ending drive towards disorganization. The book also lends an insight into some considerations of the philosophy of science, as well as the applications of science to health and a variety of other professions. The reading experience is enhanced by the provision of illuminating examples, supplementary reading and a summary of each chapter. New terminologies, that appear here for the first time, are set off in bold italics and annotated in the glossary. Where basic principles are introduced and explained, these are highlighted prominently in bold for ease of reference. Stimulating discussion questions are presented at the end of each chapter, giving readers some food for thought.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1848165749
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
Order and Disorder is a non-mathematical introduction to the most important ideas in science for university students not majoring in a scientific area. The objective is to prepare non-science students for making both life and political decisions involving science and helping them to understand the advances in sciences as covered and reported in the mass media. The book is highly comprehensive in physics and chemistry, and provides the essential background to discuss and gain a better appreciation of selected topics in biological and neurological sciences, as well as astronomy and geology. The topics are integrated with the recurring theme of order and disorder, the organization achieved in the face of the never-ending drive towards disorganization. The book also lends an insight into some considerations of the philosophy of science, as well as the applications of science to health and a variety of other professions. The reading experience is enhanced by the provision of illuminating examples, supplementary reading and a summary of each chapter. New terminologies, that appear here for the first time, are set off in bold italics and annotated in the glossary. Where basic principles are introduced and explained, these are highlighted prominently in bold for ease of reference. Stimulating discussion questions are presented at the end of each chapter, giving readers some food for thought.
The Atom in Seventeenth-century Poetry
Author: Cassandra Gorman
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845938
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
An investigation into the remarkable "poetics of the atom" in English literary texts from the mid to late seventeenth century. The early modern "atom" - understood as an indivisible particle of matter - captured the poetic imagination in ways that extended far beyond the reception of Lucretius and Epicurean atomism. Contrarily to fears of atomisation and materialist threat, many poets and philosophers of the period sought positive, spiritual motivation in the concept of material indivisibility. This book traces the metaphysical import of these poetic atoms, teasing out an affinity between poetic and atomic forms in seventeenth-century texts. In the writings of Henry More, Thomas Traherne, Margaret Cavendish, Hester Pulter and Lucy Hutchinson, both atoms and poems were instrumental in acts of creating, ordering and reconstructing knowledge. Their poems emerge as exquisitely self-conscious atomic forms, producing intimate reflections on the creative power and indivisibility of self, soul and God. The book begins with a survey of the imaginative possibilities surrounding the early modern "atom", before considering the indivisible centres of the Cambridge Platonist Henry More's cosmic, Spenserian poetics. The focus then turns to the lyrical bond formed between atom and soul in the writings of Thomas Traherne, and from there, to the experimental sequences of Margaret Cavendish and Hester Pulter, whose poetic spaces create new worlds and imagine alternative lives. The book concludes with a study of Lucy Hutchinson's creation poem Order and Disorder, which anticipates the regeneration of fallen being in atomic and alchemical terms.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845938
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
An investigation into the remarkable "poetics of the atom" in English literary texts from the mid to late seventeenth century. The early modern "atom" - understood as an indivisible particle of matter - captured the poetic imagination in ways that extended far beyond the reception of Lucretius and Epicurean atomism. Contrarily to fears of atomisation and materialist threat, many poets and philosophers of the period sought positive, spiritual motivation in the concept of material indivisibility. This book traces the metaphysical import of these poetic atoms, teasing out an affinity between poetic and atomic forms in seventeenth-century texts. In the writings of Henry More, Thomas Traherne, Margaret Cavendish, Hester Pulter and Lucy Hutchinson, both atoms and poems were instrumental in acts of creating, ordering and reconstructing knowledge. Their poems emerge as exquisitely self-conscious atomic forms, producing intimate reflections on the creative power and indivisibility of self, soul and God. The book begins with a survey of the imaginative possibilities surrounding the early modern "atom", before considering the indivisible centres of the Cambridge Platonist Henry More's cosmic, Spenserian poetics. The focus then turns to the lyrical bond formed between atom and soul in the writings of Thomas Traherne, and from there, to the experimental sequences of Margaret Cavendish and Hester Pulter, whose poetic spaces create new worlds and imagine alternative lives. The book concludes with a study of Lucy Hutchinson's creation poem Order and Disorder, which anticipates the regeneration of fallen being in atomic and alchemical terms.
Probable Impossibilities
Author: Alan Lightman
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593081323
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593081323
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.
Order and Disorder
Author: David Rich
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313000743
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
After critiquing chaos, catastrophe, and complexity theories, showing their limitations in the contemporary era, Rich furthers the development of crisis theory and applies the crisis theory approach to biological and social evolution. Treating evolution in the context of crisis theory, he shows that as evolution is both genetic and social, social evolution is an extension of biological evolution. As physical evolution results from problem solving, social evolution develops from the solving of historically significant problems, bringing about, for instance, the post-World War II era of knowledge. In this context, Rich discusses the problems of our era, with an emphasis on the paradox of industrialization and its consequences for wealthy and poor nations alike. The paradox of industrialization is approached in terms of crisis theory and resolved.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313000743
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
After critiquing chaos, catastrophe, and complexity theories, showing their limitations in the contemporary era, Rich furthers the development of crisis theory and applies the crisis theory approach to biological and social evolution. Treating evolution in the context of crisis theory, he shows that as evolution is both genetic and social, social evolution is an extension of biological evolution. As physical evolution results from problem solving, social evolution develops from the solving of historically significant problems, bringing about, for instance, the post-World War II era of knowledge. In this context, Rich discusses the problems of our era, with an emphasis on the paradox of industrialization and its consequences for wealthy and poor nations alike. The paradox of industrialization is approached in terms of crisis theory and resolved.
In the Realm of Catalysis
Author: Vitaliĭ Arkadʹevich Afanasʹev
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Catalysis
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Catalysis
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
The Janus Point
Author: Julian Barbour
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465095496
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time -- and shapes the destiny of the universe. Time is among the universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this. In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. The Janus Point has remarkable implications: while most physicists predict that the universe will become mired in disorder, Barbour sees the possibility that order -- the stuff of life -- can grow without bound. A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465095496
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time -- and shapes the destiny of the universe. Time is among the universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this. In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. The Janus Point has remarkable implications: while most physicists predict that the universe will become mired in disorder, Barbour sees the possibility that order -- the stuff of life -- can grow without bound. A major new work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence.
Order and Disorder in the World of Atoms
Author: A. I. Kitaĭgorodskiĭ
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780340169605
Category : Atoms
Languages : en
Pages : 135
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780340169605
Category : Atoms
Languages : en
Pages : 135
Book Description
Subject Catalog
Author: Library of Congress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Subject catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 1012
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Subject catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 1012
Book Description
Twenty-six Additional Scientific Papers and Philosophical Essays That Will Eventually Compel Scholars to Rethink the World
Author: Daniel Zanou
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
This compilation of twenty-six scientific papers and philosophical essays expands the mind-body problem of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. We expose the nature consciousness; we discuss its origin and manifestations in living organisms. We distinguish it from life and elaborate on human existence on Earth. From there, we solve the ancient enigma posited by Epicurus, the Greek philosopher. In science, we take over Schrodinger’s works on the body’s entropy and use the research of the Japanese Nobel laureate Yoshinori Ohsumi to explain how non-living atoms transition to living molecules, Francis Crick’s faded dream that becomes reality. We delve into the living organisms to explain various losses of consciousness and awareness, including sleep, syncope, and death. We mainly focus on sleep to elucidate this mystery that no living organisms escape.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
This compilation of twenty-six scientific papers and philosophical essays expands the mind-body problem of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. We expose the nature consciousness; we discuss its origin and manifestations in living organisms. We distinguish it from life and elaborate on human existence on Earth. From there, we solve the ancient enigma posited by Epicurus, the Greek philosopher. In science, we take over Schrodinger’s works on the body’s entropy and use the research of the Japanese Nobel laureate Yoshinori Ohsumi to explain how non-living atoms transition to living molecules, Francis Crick’s faded dream that becomes reality. We delve into the living organisms to explain various losses of consciousness and awareness, including sleep, syncope, and death. We mainly focus on sleep to elucidate this mystery that no living organisms escape.