Synopses & Reviews
Scientists, theologians, and philosophers have all sought to answer the questions of why we are here and where we are going. Finding this natural basis of life has proved elusive, but in the eloquent and creative
Into the Cool, Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan look for answers in a surprising place: the second law of thermodynamics. This second law refers to energy's inevitable tendency to change from being concentrated in one place to becoming spread out over time. In this scientific tour de force, Schneider and Sagan show how the second law is behind evolution, ecology,economics, and even life's origin.
Working from the precept that "nature abhors a gradient," Into the Cool details how complex systems emerge, enlarge, and reproduce in a world tending toward disorder. From hurricanes here to life on other worlds, from human evolution to the systems humans have created, this pervasive pull toward equilibrium governs life at its molecular base and at its peak in the elaborate structures of living complex systems. Schneider and Sagan organize their argument in a highly accessible manner, moving from descriptions of the basic physics behind energy flow to the organization of complex systems to the role of energy in life to the final section, which applies their concept of energy flow to politics, economics, and even human health.
A book that needs to be grappled with by all those who wonder at the organizing principles of existence, Into the Cool will appeal to both humanists and scientists. If Charles Darwin shook the world by showing the common ancestry of all life, so Into the Cool has a similar power to disturband#8212;and delightand#8212;by showing the common roots in energy flow of all complex, organized, and naturally functioning systems.
and#8220;Whether one is considering the difference between heat and cold or between inflated prices and market values, Schneider and Sagan argue, we can apply insights from thermodynamics and entropy to understand how systems tend toward equilibrium. The result is an impressive work that ranges across disciplinary boundaries and draws from disparate literatures without blinking.and#8221;and#8212;Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Eric D. Schneider served as senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and director of the National Marine Water Quality Laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency. His work on thermodynamicsand#8212;a topic he has pursued for more than twenty yearsand#8212;has been widely anthologized and cited. Dorion Sagan is coauthor of Acquiring Genomes and Up from Dragons. Called an and#8220;unmissable modern masterand#8221; of science writing by New Scientist, Sagan has written for the New York Times, Natural History, and Wired, among other publications.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Trouble at the EPA
Part I: The Energetic
1. The Schrand#246;dinger Paradox
2. Simplicity
3. Eyes of Fire: Classical Energy Science
4. The Cosmic Casino: Statistical Mechanics
5. Nature Abhors a Gradient
6. The River Must Flow: Open Systems
7. Too Much, Not Enough: Cycles
Part II: The Complex
8. Swirl World
9. Physics' Own "Organisms"
10. Whirlpools and Weather
Part III: The Living
11. Thermodynamics and Life
12. Brimstone Beginnings
13. Blue Planet Blues
14. Regress under Stress
15. The Secret of Trees
16. Into the Cool
17. Trends in Evolution
Part IV: The Human
18. Health, Vigor, and Longevity
19. Economics
20. Purpose in Life
Appendix: Principles of Open Thermodynamic Systems
References
Index