Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life

by Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226739376
• ISBN13: 9780226739373
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 378 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

You are a GRS too!

After reading the book I added a prefix to my name, GRS - gradient reducing system. Indeed, I am a GRS with around 4 bn year history and helping nature reduce the gradient between 5800K Sun and 2.7K outer space. If you read Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, and are wondering why the gene has got to be "selfish", then you must read this book. Its simple, when there is a gradient, nature detests it and finds a way of removing the gradient in most efficient way. Also, this book gives insights into Ecology and how each species(including us) depends on many other species. It gives a feeling that the eastern concept of one's relationship with the whole universe, is indeed true to some extent in some sense. It also lets us understand why we need to save the rain forests at any cost, if we are indeed looking at long term survival. Some examples for how nature tries to abolish gradient are exhilarating. After reading this book I got a feeling that Second law of thermodynamics replaces "God". The rise of complexity in open system with energy flow, information flow is neatly explained using non-equilibrium thermodynamics(NET). Understanding the rise of life at the most fundamental level yet is so thrilling. Some mathematics would have helped but since the book is meant for a layman too, its understandable.

Very impressive effort

Works of scientific significance tend to fall into one of two categories: those that present new material, and those that reconfigure existing material into something that is new by virtue of its originality of insight. "Into the Cool" falls decisively into the second category, and Eric Schneider and Dorion Sagan have created a book that is as much concerned with philosophy of science as it is about science. The book seamlessly presents the historical and philosophical evolution of a fundamental principle (the second law of thermodynamics as applied to open systems) and develops the implications of the principle in a staggeringly wide range of contexts. In doing so, the authors have avoided the gratuitous descent into the intentionally obscure that mars so much of "popular" scientific writing, and have given us a work that is engaging, lucid and supremely approachable. Their approach risks repetition of material, and the book is not immune to that criticism. In the book's finest moments, however, the authors are able to exploit that repetition by presenting their material in a variety of contexts that collectively support the validity of their argument. In the section on economics, for example (economics in a work on thermodynamics!), the authors make a persuasive case for viewing markets as organically derived from, rather than merely analogical to, the implications of the second law. The authors' treatment of this argument requires less in the way of philosophical gymnastics than might be imagined, and their exposition makes the unfolding of the logic seem almost inevitable. Because of the richness of the material, this is a work that demands more than one reading. Fortunately, the warmth and sincerity of the writing make this book a joy, rather than the heavy going that might easily have otherwise resulted. Highly recommended.

So provocative...This is good!

I am a very difficult reader to please when it comes to what I consider recreational reading: reading not required, per se. But this book...wow!...I remember reading this while watching House M.D (one of my favored shows) -> TV suddenly went off and I sank into this without a trace. <br /> <br />This book just seems to be bursting with provocation. The ideas within seem to both reinforce some of my own (teaching evolution/ natural selection, metastable ecosystems does that) and light off fireworks on others. And these were like explosions...not damp squibs! Reading it I continually found myself saying yes...of course and picturing the varying scenarios and running variations and possibilities through my mind. This book causes deep thought! And that is fantastic. <br /> <br />So if you aren't entirely satified with the selfish gene notion (Richard Dawkins) then you might like to delve into this work, suggesting that all life is not driven solely by genes but energy/entropy gradients that genetic complexity allows organisms to exploit and compete over, thereby driving natural selection. Mututation is also considered from instabilities, feedback cycles and competition in the reduction of these gradients. <br /> <br />Alas a creationist- advocate of intelligent design probably isn't going to draw much joy from this. <br /> <br />Note: This is a work of exposition, not mathematics. So there are no systems of partial differential equations (my god,pun intended, some of them would be absolutely horrendous) littering every page. For a 'recreational' (pun also intended) work that is still quite scholarly and serious, that is not a problem. <br /> <br />So enjoy, think, ponder...delve deeply into the hot flux of ideas burtsting from within and see where your mind's eye will lead you with this. Even if you hate it and consider it all clatrap, at least in consuming it you will have cause to deeply consider your own position on what drives all things irreversibly: life, the universe, everything, possibly shoring up its defences or modifying it. And how can that be a bad thing? <br /> <br />Wonderment burns brighter in knowledge then it ever will in ignorance... <br /> <br />Enjoy! <br />

Benard's Cells, Human Life, and Thermodynamics

Stimulating book! By far, this compendium is a `huge' step in the right direction. If, resultantly, life is to be defined via energy and matter interactions, according to which thermodynamics is home, than by all means Into the Cool has done justice. If not, nevertheless, we still have ground-breaking work. In the near future, I envisage a definitive set of twelve books on the thermodynamics of human life. Into the cool will certainly be in this collection. Libb Thims, Chemical Engineer

life's answers

For anyone seeking a path to comprehend how the threads of life are knit together this book is the best instruction manual on how to make sense of all the reductionistic misdirections. Schneider and Sagan bring together in one enchanting loom most of today's best diverse thought and data. Their fabric is no less than the best cloth which words can stitch together to explain what life is. Walter Bortz . M.D.