Author: Evgenii Rudnyi
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Entropy and Miscibility Gap: Tutorial for Biologists
Main Points A homogeneous phase can be spontaneously decomposed into two immiscible phases. Concentration gradients can be spontaneously formed at the border between immiscible phases when the system reaches its equilibrium state. At constant temperature and pressure the entropy of system in question spontaneously decreases during the separation process. In the adiabatic system the increase…
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Muddle Puddle with Entropy in Biology
One paragraph from J. Scott Turner, Biology’s Second Law: Homeostasis, Purpose, and Desire. In Beyond Mechanism: Putting Life Back Into Biology I should say that the book is good and the chapter actually is also not bad. Yet, this paragraph speaks for itself: p. 192 “At its most general, the disequilibrium that characterizes a living system…
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Addiction: The View from Rat Park
In an interview of Alexis Pietak, I have heard about Rat Park and now I have found information in Internet. Bruce K. Alexander Addiction: The View from Rat Park http://globalizationofaddiction.ca/articles-speeches/rat-park/148-addiction-the-view-from-rat-park.html “In the 1960s, some experimental psychologists began to think that the Skinner Box was a good place to study drug addiction. They perfected techniques that…
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Darwin’s Ghosts
Rebecca Stott, Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution A nice book. I have enjoyed listening to it. Below there are scientists, considered in detail in the book. An excerpt: http://www.randomhouse.com/book/204510/darwins-ghosts-by-rebecca-stott#excerpt Chapter 2: Aristotle Eyes – Lesbos, 344 BC The History of Animals, Parts of Animals Chapter 3: The Worshipful Curiosity of Jahiz – Basra…
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Prigogine: The new alliance
I. Prigogine and I. Stengers, The new alliance, Scientia 112 (1977) Part One – From Dynamics to Thermodynamics: Physics, the Gradual Opening towards the World of Natural Processes, 319-332. Part Two – An Extended Dynamics: towards a Human Science of Nature, 643-653. I like the beginning of the first part where the problem is formulated…
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Sense of Being Stared At
My message to Formative Causation list. 20.04.2013 13:14 Sheldrake’s paper [1] on the sense of being started at was the first paper with which I have got acquainted with Sheldrake’s ideas. The paper was recommended me during a discussion of Velmans’ paper [2] (see also Velmans‘ book [3]). I am not sure that any new…
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The Uses of a Screwdriver Cannot be Listed Algorithmically
A quote from Stuart A. Kauffman, Foreword: Evolution beyond Newton, Darwin, and Entailing Law. In Beyond Mechanism: Putting Life Back Into Biology p. 9 “Here is the first ‘strange’ step. Can you name all the uses of a screwdriver, alone, or with other objects or process? Well, screw in a a screw, open a paint can, wedge…
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Christian Roots of Modern Science
From my discussion. 15.04.2013 19:47 The modern science seems to have strong roots in Christianity. You may want to look at Edward Dolnick, The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World The book nicely shows that god has played the crucial role in the scientific revolution of the…