Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature - Softcover

Chaisson, Eric J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674009878 ISBN 13: 9780674009875

Verlag: Harvard University Press, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

The Rise of Complexity in Nature

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Críticas:

Chaisson is an astrophysicist at Tufts University, who has written many popular books on science. His newest offering is concerned with 'time's arrow,' a curve of rising cosmic complexity beginning with the big bang...Chaisson argues that rising complexity can be explained (or at least roughly described) by the laws of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, without any need to postulate new kinds of science or mysticism. He shows that in an expanding universe, local pockets of order will naturally arise even as the overall disorder (entropy) of the universe increases...What is most original about Chaisson's argument is his proposal of a quantitative way to measure complexity, and to plot the course of cosmic evolution using this measure. -- Chet Raymo Boston Globe 20001219 Cosmic Evolution is an illuminating book, and one that should appeal to both scientists and general readers. Seeing how the expansion of the Universe spawned all the living complexity around and within us creates a fuller appreciation of the entwined laws and flaws of Nature...This is a book that will encourage a greater energy flow between astrophysics and bioscience. -- John D. Barrow New Scientist Chaisson's project--the search for unifying patterns of change across the largest temporal and spatial scales--is a worthy one...[His] theory has the ring of rightness. -- Daniel W. McShea American Scientist 20011101 Chaisson's book provides exciting new testimony to the increasing power of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to change how we see ourselves and the world. -- Lynn Marguilis Times Higher Education Supplement 20011109 Chaisson argues that rising complexity can be explained... by the laws of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, without any need to postulate new kinds of science or mysticism ... What is most original about Chaisson's argument is his proposal of a quantitative way to measure complexity, and to plot the course of cosmic evolution using this measure? -- Chet Raymo Boston Globe An illuminating book, and one that should appeal to both scientists and general readers ... This is a book that will encourage a greater energy flow between astrophysics and bioscience. -- John D. Barrow New Scientist Chaisson's project--the search for unifying patterns of change across the largest temporal and spatial scales--is a worthy one... [His] theory has the ring of rightness? -- Daniel W. McShea American Scientist Chaisson's book provides exciting new testimony to the increasing power of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to change how we see ourselves and the world? -- Lynn Margulis Times Higher Education Supplement So Chaisson defines life as an "open, coherent, space- time structure maintained far from thermodynamic equilibrium by a flow of energy through it."...Chaisson's approach leaves one wondering, perhaps absurdly...In this creative, thought-provoking book, Chaisson shows how difficult even the most basic scientific question can turn out to be. -- Charles Seife Wilson Quarterly Surveys the grand scenario of cosmic evolution by examining natural changes among radiation, matter, and life within the context of big-bang cosmology. Using non- equilibrium thermodynamics and a suite of interdisciplinary arguments, the author follows the changes in energy within numerous well-known structures, including galaxies, stars, planets, and life. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific [Chaisson's] discourse covers a wide range, from the physics of the early Universe to the origin and nature of life, touching on issues such as the 'anthropic principle' in cosmology, the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium systems, Darwinian views on the evolution of life seen in the context of present-day molecular biology, and issues of cultural development. Thus, he takes seriously the modern biological synthesis and also places it in its proper physical and cosmological context, emphasizing interesting causal links. -- George Ellis Nature

Reseña del editor:

We are connected to distant space and time not only by our imaginations but also through a common cosmic heritage. Emerging now from modern science is a unified scenario of the cosmos, including ourselves as sentient beings, based on the time-honored concept of change. From galaxies to snowflakes, from stars and planets to life itself, we are beginning to identify an underlying ubiquitous pattern penetrating the fabric of all the natural sciences--a sweepingly encompassing view of the order and structure of every known class of object in our richly endowed universe. This is the subject of Eric Chaisson's new book. In Cosmic Evolution Chaisson addresses some of the most basic issues we can contemplate: the origin of matter and the origin of life, and the ways matter, life, and radiation interact and change with time. Guided by notions of beauty and symmetry, by the search for simplicity and elegance, by the ambition to explain the widest range of phenomena with the fewest possible principles, Chaisson designs for us an expansive yet intricate model depicting the origin and evolution of all material structures. He shows us that neither new science nor appeals to nonscience are needed to understand the impressive hierarchy of the cosmic evolutionary story, from quark to quasar, from microbe to mind.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Harvard University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0674009878
• ISBN 13: 9780674009875
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 274