The rainbow and the worm : the physics of organisms
This work takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals. Along the way the author offers the reader insights into "the poetry and meaning of being alive".
xix, 282 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
9789810234263, 9789810234270, 9810234260, 9810234279
40443262
Ch. 1. What is It to Be Alive?
Ch. 2. Do Organisms Contravene the Second Law?
Ch. 3. Can the Second Law Cope with Organized Complexity?
Ch. 4. Energy Flow and Living Cycles
Ch. 5. How to Catch a Falling Electron
Ch. 6. Towards a Thermodynamics of Organized Complexity
Ch. 7. The Seventy-Three Octaves of Nature's Music
Ch. 8. Coherent Excitations of the Body Electric
Ch. 9. How Coherent is the Organism?
Ch. 10. Life is All the Colours of the Rainbow in a Worm
Ch. 11. The Liquid Crystalline Organism
Ch. 12. Crystal Consciousness
Ch. 13. Quantum Entanglement and Coherence
Ch. 14. The Ignorance of the External Observer
Ch. 15. Time and Freewill