First Support for a Physics Theory of Life
August 6, 2017 5:21 AM Subscribe
Beginnings of how order can arise from disorder? Thermodynamics says everything gets more disordered through Entropy only naturally increasing. Illya Prigogine (Nobel '77) found a different way in the 50's. First description how order can spontaneously develop from disorder with his "dissipative structures". Been several advances since then.
Life uh finds a way.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:35 AM on August 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 7:35 AM on August 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Thermodynamics says everything gets more disordered through Entropy only naturally increasing.
If you think that's the old, less interesting, story, search around youtube for Ludwig Boltzmann, the guy who first framed the problem you will remember from high school chemistry, as that box of gas with a partition down the middle.
When I came across his personal story and life history while cruising the science biographies I was astounded. Maybe we will have a good multi-link post about him someday.
For one thing, his mathematics to describe that gas-in-the-box situation opened the door to quantum theory. If you have some gas in a box, and start slowly expanding the box, the pressure slides down. The pressure itself comes from the collisions of atoms, that are less frequent as they get spread out. Since collisions can only happen in integer quantities, he worked out statistical formulas that integrate a seemingly smooth drop in pressure that is fundamentally step-wise, and opened the door to quantum physics.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:40 AM on August 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
If you think that's the old, less interesting, story, search around youtube for Ludwig Boltzmann, the guy who first framed the problem you will remember from high school chemistry, as that box of gas with a partition down the middle.
When I came across his personal story and life history while cruising the science biographies I was astounded. Maybe we will have a good multi-link post about him someday.
For one thing, his mathematics to describe that gas-in-the-box situation opened the door to quantum theory. If you have some gas in a box, and start slowly expanding the box, the pressure slides down. The pressure itself comes from the collisions of atoms, that are less frequent as they get spread out. Since collisions can only happen in integer quantities, he worked out statistical formulas that integrate a seemingly smooth drop in pressure that is fundamentally step-wise, and opened the door to quantum physics.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:40 AM on August 6, 2017 [7 favorites]
Maxell’s daemon is not paradoxical: if you do the full analysis you find that the information processing that the daemon does in order to keep track of the particles burns more energy than the daemon gets back from partitioning the gas. This response to the paradox goes almost back to the original posing of the problem in the first place, but I believe it was put on a firm numerical footing back in the 60s.
(I can probably track down the references if anyone cares, but it’s been a while since I looked at this stuff.)
posted by pharm at 9:43 AM on August 6, 2017
(I can probably track down the references if anyone cares, but it’s been a while since I looked at this stuff.)
posted by pharm at 9:43 AM on August 6, 2017
"With no arrow of time, there is no longer a privileged moment known as the "present," which follows a determined "past" and precedes an undetermined "future." All of time is simply given, with the future as determined or as undetermined as the past. With irreversibility, the arrow of time is reintroduced to physics. Prigogine notes numerous examples of irreversibility, including diffusion, radioactive decay, solar radiation, weather and the emergence and evolution of life. Like weather systems, organisms are unstable systems existing far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Instability resists standard deterministic explanation. Instead, due to sensitivity to initial conditions, unstable systems can only be explained statistically, that is, in terms of probability."
Physics
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Poetry
posted by Oyéah at 10:43 AM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Physics
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Poetry
posted by Oyéah at 10:43 AM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I've recently discovered that if you replace every instance of "entropy" with the word "death" in these articles, they suddenly make perfect sense.
posted by polymodus at 11:50 AM on August 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by polymodus at 11:50 AM on August 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think England's theory is more clearly explained in this article in Scientific American.
posted by Modest House at 2:47 PM on August 6, 2017
posted by Modest House at 2:47 PM on August 6, 2017
polymodus, that is an excellent approach to any article on (say) the Maximum Death Theory of Ecology.
posted by clew at 3:18 PM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 3:18 PM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
First saw this in nautil.us
Then (not click bait-y) Quanta
My favorite was the 2nd though I hadn't seen the Scientific American blog link. Thank you.
posted by aleph at 4:07 PM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Then (not click bait-y) Quanta
My favorite was the 2nd though I hadn't seen the Scientific American blog link. Thank you.
posted by aleph at 4:07 PM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure that is how thermodynamics works
posted by thelonius at 6:53 AM on August 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 6:53 AM on August 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
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posted by Bringer Tom at 5:47 AM on August 6, 2017