Steps Towards an Evolutionary Physics

Steps Towards an Evolutionary Physics PDF Author: Enzo Tiezzi
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1845640357
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This book introduces the elements of a new evolutionary approach to physics. Based on intuition, this concept was originated by the late Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine.The text will appeal to both technical and graduate audiences as well as general readers. It deals with the following topics: Epistemological Basis of Evolutionary Thermodynamics; Far From Equilibrium - Thermodynamics and Irreversibility; The Concept of Negentropy (From Boltzman to Szent-György, Through Schrödinger's "What's Life"); Energy Versus Entropy; Is Entropy Always a Function State? The Arrow of Time and the Role of Events in an Evolutionary Physical-Chemistry; First and Second Principles of Thermodynamics Revisited; Introduction to Ecodynamics - Fundamental Principles; A Physics for Biosystems and Ecosystems - Cross-Fertilization Between Evolutionary Thermodynamics and Systems Ecology; The Supramolecular Structure of Water - A Magnetic Resonance Approach; Nuclear Spin Relaxation Times; Dissipative Structures in Nature - The Bat's Case (Biodiversity and Strange Attractors); Application of Ecodynamic Models to Sustainable Development; Biosphere Global Ecodynamic Models; and Dissipative Structures and Design.

Steps Towards an Evolutionary Physics

Steps Towards an Evolutionary Physics PDF Author: Enzo Tiezzi
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1845640357
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book introduces the elements of a new evolutionary approach to physics. Based on intuition, this concept was originated by the late Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine.The text will appeal to both technical and graduate audiences as well as general readers. It deals with the following topics: Epistemological Basis of Evolutionary Thermodynamics; Far From Equilibrium - Thermodynamics and Irreversibility; The Concept of Negentropy (From Boltzman to Szent-György, Through Schrödinger's "What's Life"); Energy Versus Entropy; Is Entropy Always a Function State? The Arrow of Time and the Role of Events in an Evolutionary Physical-Chemistry; First and Second Principles of Thermodynamics Revisited; Introduction to Ecodynamics - Fundamental Principles; A Physics for Biosystems and Ecosystems - Cross-Fertilization Between Evolutionary Thermodynamics and Systems Ecology; The Supramolecular Structure of Water - A Magnetic Resonance Approach; Nuclear Spin Relaxation Times; Dissipative Structures in Nature - The Bat's Case (Biodiversity and Strange Attractors); Application of Ecodynamic Models to Sustainable Development; Biosphere Global Ecodynamic Models; and Dissipative Structures and Design.

Physics of Self-Organization and Evolution

Physics of Self-Organization and Evolution PDF Author: Werner Ebeling
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 3527636803
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 535

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Book Description
This thoroughly updated version of the German authoritative work on self-organization has been completely rewritten by internationally renowned experts and experienced book authors to also include a review of more recent literature. It retains the original enthusiasm and fascination surrounding thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, synergetics, and the origin of life, representing an easily readable book and tutorial on this exciting field. The book is unique in covering in detail the experimental and theoretical fundamentals of self-organizing systems as well as such selected features as random processes, structural networks and multistable systems, while focusing on the physical and theoretical modeling of natural selection and evolution processes. The authors take examples from physics, chemistry, biology and social systems, and include results hitherto unpublished in English. The result is a one-stop resource relevant for students and scientists in physics or related interdisciplinary fields, including mathematical physics, biophysics, information science and nanotechnology.

Information, Entropy, and Progress

Information, Entropy, and Progress PDF Author: Robert U. Ayres
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780883189115
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Market: Those in economics, especially thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, cybernetics, information theory, resource use, and evolutionary economic behavior. This book presents an innovative and challenging look at evolution on several scales, from the earth and its geology and chemistry to living organisms to social and economic systems. Applying the principles of thermodynamics and the concepts of information gathering and self- organization, the author characterizes the direction of evolution in each case as an accumulation of "distinguishability" information--a type of universal knowledge.

Steps Towards Life

Steps Towards Life PDF Author: Manfred Eigen
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198547525
Category : Evolution
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
Eigen shows that life on Earth is the inevitable result of certain chance events that took place in the unique history of our planet. He introduces how to interpret the molecular 'fossil record'. Part one are ideas that are justified scientifically. Part two shows important biological ideas and the final section summarizes developments in molecular biology.

The Evolution of Physics

The Evolution of Physics PDF Author: Albert Einstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physics
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
"The layman does not often have the opportunity of reading a simple exposition of advanced scientific thought written by a man who did the actual creative thinking. In this book, which is the result of a happy collaboration between the author of the Theory of Relativity and one of his own co-workers in research, the story they have to tell of this evolutionary development is one of the most fascinating that the human mind can meet with - the story of mankind's attempt to comprehend through inventive thought its own relationship to the external world. In simple, straightforward language, avoiding all the technical terms and mathematical formulae, the authors have traced with beautiful clarity the steps from the mechanical view of the universe invented by the classical physicists to the more satisfactory explanations evolved by modern science. Here is the story of man's conquest of his own ignorance. To read it is to participate in one of the greatest adventures of all time - the adventure of expanding the horizon of knowledge, the adventure of man's magnificent struggle to understand the laws governing the universe in which he lives." -- Amazon.com

The Physics of Life

The Physics of Life PDF Author: Adrian Bejan
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250078822
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
An empowering new view of the nature of physics and the constant evolution of our physical and social world

Molecular Theory of Evolution

Molecular Theory of Evolution PDF Author: Bernd-Olaf Küppers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642705448
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The subject of this book is the physico-chemical theory of the origin of life. Although this theory is still in statu nascendi, it has been developed in recent years to the point where a coherent presentation is possible. The book is intended as an introductory text for students of physics, chemistry or biology. This interdisciplinary aim has necessitated a choice of material based on the lowest common denominator of physicists and biologists. In particular, the predominantly mathematical and biological sections have been presented at the most elementary l.evel possible. The less mathematically inclined reader can omit Sections (5.3)-(5.5), (5.7)-(5.10), (6.2), (6.3), (9.1)-(9.3), (12.1) and (13.3) without losing the overall view. For critical reading of the manuscript, for discussions and for many useful suggestions I wish to thank M. Eigen (Gottingen), w.e. Gardiner (Austin), D. Porschke (Gottingen), P. Schuster (Vienna), P.R. Wills (Auckland) and P. Woolley (Berlin). The translation of the original, German manuscript into English was kindly undertaken by Paul Woolley. During this and subsequent stages of revision he introduced a great many improvements in the text and the presentation of material. My particular thanks are due to him for his decisive contribution to this book. Last of all I wish to thank Ingeborg Lechten for typing the text in its various stages of evolution. The completion of this book is largely to be attributed to her patience and efficiency.

The Physics of Evolution

The Physics of Evolution PDF Author: Michael W. Roth
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000890597
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
This book provides an introduction to the significant role of physics in evolution, based on the ideas of matter and energy resource flow, organism self-copying, and ecological change. The text employs these ideas to create quantitative models for important evolutionary processes. Many fields of science and engineering have come up against the problem of complex design—when details become so numerous that computer power alone cannot make progress. Nature solved the complex-design problem using evolution, yet how it did so has been a mystery. Both laboratory experiments and computer-simulation attempts eventually stopped evolving. Something more than Darwin’s ideas of heredity, variation, and selection was needed. The solution is that there is a fourth element to evolution: ecological change. When a new variation is selected, this can change the ecology, and the new ecology can create new opportunities for even more new variations to be selected. Through this endless cycle, complexity can grow automatically. This book uses the physics of resource flow to describe this process in detail, developing quantitative models for many evolutionary processes, including selection, multicellularity, coevolution, sexual reproduction, and the Serengeti Rules. The text demonstrates that these models are in conceptual agreement with numerous examples of biological phenomena, and reveals, through physics, how complex design can arise naturally. This will serve as a key text on the part physics plays in evolution, and will be of great interest to students at the university level and above studying biophysics, physics, systems biology, and related fields.

Sidelights on Relativity

Sidelights on Relativity PDF Author: Albert Einstein
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Sidelights on Relativity" by Albert Einstein. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Equations of Life

The Equations of Life PDF Author: Charles S. Cockell
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154164459X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
A groundbreaking argument for why alien life will evolve to be much like life here on Earth We are all familiar with the popular idea of strange alien life wildly different from life on earth inhabiting other planets. Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it has wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find on a distant planet something very much like a lady bug eating something like an aphid, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence. A remarkable scientific contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution, The Equations of Life makes a radical argument about what life can -- and can't -- be.