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Books > Science & Mathematics > Physics > Applied physics & special topics > Biophysics
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Sailing the Ocean of Complexity - Lessons from the Physics-Biology Frontier (Hardcover, 1)
Loot Price: R947
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Sailing the Ocean of Complexity - Lessons from the Physics-Biology Frontier (Hardcover, 1)
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"Both superb and essential... Succi, with clarity and wit, takes us
from quarks and Boltzmann to soft matter - precisely the frontier
of physics and life." Stuart Kauffman, MacArthur Fellow, Fellow of
the Royal Society of Canada, Gold Medal Accademia Lincea We live in
a world of utmost complexity, outside and within us. There are
thousand of billions of billions of stars out there in the
Universe, a hundred times more molecules in a glass of water, and
another hundred times more in our body, all working in sync to keep
us alive and well. At face value, such numbers spell certain doom
for our ability to make any sense at all of the world around and
within us. And yet, they don't. Why, and how - this book endeavours
to provide an answer to these questions with specific reference to
a selected window of the physics-biology interface. The story
unfolds over four main Parts. Part I provides an introduction to
the main organizational principles which govern the functioning of
complex systems in general, such as nonlinearity, nonlocality and
ultra-dimensions. Part II deals with thermodynamics, the science of
change, starting with its historical foundations laid down in the
19th century, and then moving on to its modern and still open
developments in connection with biology and cosmology. Part III
deals with the main character of this book, free energy, and the
wondrous scenarios opened up by its merger with the modern tools of
statistical physics. It also describes the basic facts about soft
matter, the state of matter most relevant to biological organisms.
Finally, Part IV discusses the connection between time and
complexity, and its profound implications on the human condition,
i.e. the one-sided nature of time and the awareness of human
mortality. It concludes with a few personal considerations about
the special place of emotions and humility in science.
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