The Physics of Life: The Evolution of Everything

by Adrian Bejan

The Physics of Life explores the roots of the big question by examining the deepest urges and properties of living things, both animate and inanimate: how to live longer, with food, warmth, power, movement and free access to other people and surroundings. Bejan explores controversial and relevant issues such as sustainability, water and food supply, fuel, and economy, to critique the state in which the world understands positions of power and freedom. Breaking down concepts such as desire and power, sports health and culture, the state of economy, water and energy, politics and distribution, Bejan uses the language of physics to explain how each system works in order to clarify the meaning of evolution in its broadest scientific sense, moving the reader towards a better understanding of the world's systems and the natural evolution of cultural and political development.

The Physics of Life argues that the evolution phenomenon is much broader and older than the evolutionary designs that constitute the biosphere, empowering readers with a new view of the globe and the future, revealing that the urge to have better ideas has the same physical effect as the urge to have better laws and better government. This is evolution explained loudly but also elegantly, forging a path that flows sustainability.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Nature, Biology, Stem

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 24, 2016

About the author

Adrian Bejan (MIT, 1971, 1972, 1975) is an American professor and discoverer of the constructal law of design evolution in nature. He is J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor at Duke University. He published more than 620 articles, 29 books and is in top 100 of most cited engineers in the world. He is a member of the Academy of Europe, and received 18 honorary doctorates from universities in 11 countries.

Academy of Europe:
http://www.ae-info.org/ae/User/Bejan_...

Constructal Law: Astrobiology Magazine
http://www.astrobio.net/topic/solar-s...

Reviews

[Mircea Petcu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce este viața? Viața este opusul morții. V-am lămurit. Definiția termodinamică a stării de moarte e bine stabilită. E situația unui sistem care se află în echilibru perfect cu mediul înconjurător. De pildă în stare de moarte, temperatura și presiunea sistemului sunt identice cu temperatura și presiunea mediului. Starea de moarte înseamnă cu "nimic nu se mișcă", nici sistemul, nici componentele lui.

Sistemul în stare de viață nu se află în echilibru cu mediul său. Sistemul este împins și tras, încălzit și răcit, e populat de curgeri și, mai ales, de organizare. Se mișcă unitar și se transformă liber pe măsură ce se scurge. Viața este mișcare.

Cartea de față tratează evoluția ca fenomen al întregii fizici, atât a sistemelor vii, cât și a celor nevii, totul aflându-se în mișcare și în transformare liberă. Autorul aplică principiile asociate vieții la economie, urbanism, sport, tehnologie și cultură.
De exemplu, activitatea economică internă a unei țări (PIB-ul) este proporțională cu cantitatea de combustibil consumat anual în acea țară. Cantitatea de combustibil consumat este proporțională cu mișcarea totală care are loc în peisaj: trasporturi, încălzire, refrigerare, apă potabilă etc. Avuția este o cantitate fizică măsurabilă - mișcarea oamenilor și a invențiilor lor pe Pământ.

Adrian Bejan este profesor de termodinamică la Duke University. A crescut în Galați.

Recomand

[Alan Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Adrian Bejan, the J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University, invented what he calls the "constructal law," defined in this book as follows: “For a flow system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve freely such that it provides greater access to its currents” (The Physics of Life, Kindle ed., 239, italics in the original). As indicated in the subtitle, Bejan claims that this law accounts for "the evolution of everything." Bejan extends the definition of evolution far beyond biological natural selection: "Evolution is a much broader concept than merely biological evolution. It is a physics concept" (79). The Physics of Life purports to apply the constructal law to all aspects of earthly existence, including all nonliving and living things. Chapter 8 explicitly applies this physics concept to political matters, and Bejan also occasionally argues its relevance to ethics.

Most of the book involves detailed discussions about the application of the constructal law in subhuman contexts. Since I am not a natural scientist, I am not competent to address those issues. Nor am I an expert on the physics of traffic flows, sports, academic competition, and similar subjects addressed by Bejan. I am, however, qualified to address Bejan's remarks about ethical and political matters (see my Goodreads profile page), and the present review is limited to those questions.

How does Bejan jump from a physics "law" to ethical and political philosophy? In one word: "analogy." On page 65, he explains:

Nature speaks to us in the language that she has taught us already. The human mind has the natural urge to understand, which means to rationalize, to explain and to simplify what it needs to retrieve, i.e., to remember more easily. It stores the imagined and the unseen in the imagery that nature has already taught us. This is where the observed and the touched first land on our mental movie screen. This urge is why “analogy” occurs in the mind, and why analogy is appealing and useful. This is the urge that empowered humans with speech, cave paintings, superstitions, religion and science. [Emphasis added.]

The Physics of Life is all about analogy, with Bejan explicitly eschewing empirical data (231). Bejan even reduces ethics to his constructal metaphor. Without engaging in any philosophical or historical study of ethics, he elucidates the concept of "goodness" as follows:

[The] feeling of familiarity is a comment on the goodness of an idea. I hear comments of this kind every time I lecture on the constructal law. This law is innate in all of us. We invoke it when we say:

Go with the flow.
Find the shortest path.
The end justifies the means.
Carpe diem (seize the day).
Anything goes.
When in Rome do as the Romans do.
All roads lead to Rome.
If you can’t beat them, join them.
Everybody loves a winner. . . .
The rich get richer.

(195-96, italics in the original.)

Bejan does not pause to reflect on the ethical implications of the foregoing statements, because the universal constructal law reduces morality to physics. "Good is the feature of the new organization (design) that we select after every change. Good and organization (design) are concepts that belong in science. They are placed firmly in physics as the constructal law" (224). "Go with the flow" and "anything goes" reflect his fundamental theme that everything is about flow (rivers are his favorite topic). Apart from the implicit amorality of his position (the "end justifies the means"?), his commandments imply that we are to acquiesce in and conform to whatever the successful powers dictate. Although he elsewhere in the book expresses disapproval of dictators (they interfere with the flow, don’t you know), he suggests their periods of power are necessarily short-lived. However, history (those inconvenient empirical facts again!) is replete with examples of authoritarian or totalitarian rule lasting for generations. I guess in such situations one is well-advised, following constructal law scripture, that "if you can't beat them, join them," because, after all, "everybody loves a winner." Moreover, "all roads lead to Rome," and "when in Rome do as the Romans do." This is a recipe for servile submission. And it is consistent with Bejan's constantly repeated themes throughout this book—that hierarchy, winners, big people, big animals, the wealthy, and the like are good because they are evolutionary specimens of the natural flow, whereas the poor, the unlucky, and others who lack political or economic power are inferior. One may be forgiven if one immediately thinks of another famous analogy: Social Darwinism .

Bejan's constructal law claims to bring "politics, history and society under the scientific tent where they and everything else belong" (66). Not only ethics but also politics and history are reduced to physics. "Physics alone is the biggest tent under which the life phenomenon fits, encompassing the animate, the inanimate and the social. This is why life is physics, why the constructal law is the physics law of life and evolution and why physics is much broader and more powerful than previously thought" (238, footnotes omitted).

Chapter 8 contains the author's thematic treatment of politics. Near the beginning of this chapter, he sets forth a bizarre model in which politicians constantly change their opinions to keep up with the latest and newest political fads with the media facilitating such flow. Of course, consistent with his aversion to empirical data, he offers none to support his theory. Nor does he consider whether such behavior is conducive to good government. Nowhere do we find anything in this book that would remind us of any deep reflections on human political life. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison famously asked, "what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?" This question does not occur to Bejan, because, to him, human nature is replaced by the constructal law of physics: human nature and human government are understood only in terms of the subhuman. There is no essential difference between human ethical and political phenomena and the flow of a river. Although Bejan does not address the subject, it would follow from the applicability of the subhuman constructal law to human government that the checks and balances and separation of powers so carefully established by James Madison and the other founders of the US republic should be eliminated as being inconsistent with good physics. If Bejan were giving the Gettysburg Address, he would praise government of the flow, by the flow, and for the flow.

So how does Bejan support his political theory that those politicians are best who constantly change their views? Let him speak for himself (158):

Now, I know what you are thinking: it is crazy or, at best, far-fetched for a physicist to theorize about politics, what good policy is, and how it spreads. Well, think again, because what I sketched here in figure 8.1 is what happens every day with every idea that every scientist publishes. Immortality galore. The fame and longevity of the generator of ideas has the same origin (it is of the same nature) as the continued success and legacy of the good politician.

The "proof" of Bejan's political theory is an analogy to academic politics, something which (evidently unlike political philosophy and political science) Professor Bejan has actually studied and in which he obviously has ample experience.

As applied to ethics and politics, the constructal law rests solely on arguments from analogy. Since rivers must flow, so must human ethics and politics. Everything that contributes to the flow is good; everything that obstructs it is bad. This is called the fallacy of faulty analogy. Limited space does not permit me to elaborate, but the reader can find the explanation of the defects of such analogical reasoning in the following, among other, works: John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation, 8th ed. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900), 393-97 (bk. 3, chap. 20), 553-58 (bk. 5, chap. 5, §§ 6-7); W. Ward Fearnside and William B. Holther, Fallacy: The Counterfeit of Argument (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Spectrum, 1959), 22-27; Douglas Walton, Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach, Kindle ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 305-15 (§§ 9.4-9.6); Michael C. LaBossiere, 76 Fallacies, Kindle ed. (Amazon Digital Services, 2012), 120-23; and Marianne Talbot, Critical Reasoning: A Romp Through the Foothills of Logic for Complete Beginners, Kindle ed. (Metafore, 2014), Kindle loc. 2264-2307.

Alan E. Johnson
September 20, 2018

[Karla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Today is not the day that I finished this book. It is the day that they library took it back. I heard quite a bit of hype about this book. But it was a bitter disappointment. While the author has some interesting ideas (even though with a biology background I don't quite agree with them), which is why it got 2 stars instead of 1, the writing is dry and difficult to read. Really difficult to read. My movement and flow through the pages of this book is too slow and boring to continue further.

[Jong Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is movement, and movement is flow.

This book represents the science behind every animate and inanimate's evolution. Everything should move in a way to help the best flow; volume, speed and efficiency. Professor Bejan's long research and experience in thermodynamics and heat transfer that govern the basic principles of physics and engineering has also evolved into different ways and efficient methods to spread his knowledge to touch as many human beings as possible. This is more than engineering and science. This conveys much wisdom and insight for human organization, business systems and economic structures.

[Tyler · Rating 1 out of 5]

The whole book just repeats the first couple chapters (with lots of unnecessary parentheses) while the author toots his own horn over this theory he came up with and all fields that aren't physics have everything wrong and the whole universe is just this one law that he came up with and did I forget to mention that he came up with it? No organization, no takeaways, lots of time wasted.

[Stuart Woolf · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a rule, I try to read the first three chapters of a book before tossing it in the fireplace. But this book became fuel soon after Chapter 1.

This book was hard to read. My guess is, English is the author's second or third language, because it shows. There are many sentences that begin in a very general way, followed by an uninspiring list of particulars, e.g. "Physics is all around us: in the air we breathe, the ocean waves crashing against the sand, etc. etc." The tone is one of poetic pseudo-profundity.

It's too bad because the role of physics in life science is a very rich, interesting, and complex subject. I suppose they cannot all be winners...

[Peter Tillman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Briefly attempted. Writing is gobbledegook. Here's Charles Panati, physicist (Villanova and Columbia Universities), former science editor for Newsweek:

"An incomprehensible book. Not because of the science; because of the prose. Single sentences are sometimes nothing but strings of nonsensical words. Successive sentences don't track. Paragraphs are a muddle of ideas. The book is the worst I've ever attempted to read. ....
I've never encountered a published book where the text makes less sense."
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

Life is too short, and my To Read pile is too big, to bother with this. Be sure to read more of the 1 & 2-star reviews here and at Amazon before spending time on this turkey. Caveat lector!

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Initially, I was inclined to write this book off as a bad choice on my part: sucked-in by the title which suggested to me that I would find out more about the physics driving the evolution of DNA. But, in the spirit of trying to give the author a decent hearing, I started reading a bit about it and about the author. The initial results were not promising. I realised that I already had another book by him: "Design in nature" and my reaction to it was negative. He seems to be one of those individuals who believes they have found the "key to the universe" or if not the universe to some major issues facing humankind. In the case of the latter book Bejan had developed his "Constructal law of design"...which he seemed to think was the equivalent of Darwin's postulation of the survival of the fittest species as the basis of evolution.
The current book, is really more of the same. It's all a bit over the top. I think he over claims, yet there are a few nuggets in there...so hard to just dismiss out of hand ....even though I put his books right up there with "Music of the spheres" by Guy Murchie....kind of philosophical, pseudo-science.
So what are the nuggets? Well, one is his fundamental principle that rivers in a watershed take on a tree-like shape with many small tributaries leading to a few large rivers....feeding into one larger river. Why does this happen?....Bejan claims, basic physics: and it's all about efficiency and coverage. OK, I accept that. Another nugget is that transport around the nation tends to do the same thing.....a few large haulers between major hubs and then many smaller distributors with small trucks. Why? Because that'd the most efficient way to arrange transport. And he has some interesting stuff there about designing buildings so that people can escape in an emergency....yet he doesn't appear to have the technique that I saw somewhere else....about having things like two doors ...one for entrance and one for exits and other design techniques. He develops a lot of his theory on th back of comparisons between GDP and energy consumption: the richer the country the more energy they consume per capita. OK seems reasonable. But also the more energy, the better the health outcomes. Kind of using correlation to prove association. Bottom line is that richer countries can invest more in health per capita so get better health outcomes on average....and yes they consume more energy. But it doesn't demonstrate that by burning a lot of fuel you will necessarily get good health outcomes. Rather the reverse might be true. (Certainly doesn't work on a micro scale ...say around a steel town where lots of energy is consumed but lots of toxic emissions also result...plus it's dangerous working around molten metal).
But I'm not sure that I really buy his idea that life is movement (at least that's what I take him to be claiming). Yes it is hard to define life....especially when we now have artificial life existing in computers.....but generally life has something about self-reproduction and Bejan's definition simply side-steps this. I guess, one can define life as movement and most life has to have some movement....even an oyster. But I think he reckons he is on to something BIG with his constructal law of design (note it's a LAW...not just a theory....that's a bit of a give away that he's over-claiming). Sorry, but I don't agree that you are onto something big...and sorry Adrian, but I ended up just skimming your book...and I think this was as much as is warranted. I give it one star.
So what are the nuggets? well one is his fundamental principle that rivers in a watershed take on a tree-like shape with many small tributaries leading to a few large rivers ,,,feeding into one larger river. Why does this happen....well Bejan claims basic physics and it's all about efficiency and coverage. OK I accept that. Another nugget is that transport around the nation tends to do the same thing.....a few large haulers between major hubs and then many smaller distributors with small trucks. Why? Because that'd the most efficient way to arrange transport. And he has some interesting stuff there about designing buildings so that people can escape in an emergency....yet he doesn't appear to have the technique that I saw somewhere else....about having things like two doors ...one for entrance and one for exits and other design techniques. He develops a lot of his theory on th back of comparisons between GDP and energy consumption: the richer the country the more energy they consume per capita. OK seems reasonable. But also the more energy, the better the health outcomes. Kind of using correlation to prove association. Bottom line is that richer countries can invest more in health per capita so get better health outcomes on average....and yes they consume more energy. But it doesn't demonstrate that by burning a lot of fuel you will necessarily get good health outcomes. Rather the reverse might be true. But I'm not sure that I really buy his idea that life is movement (at least that's what I take him to be claiming). Yes it is hard to define life....especially when we now have artificial life existing in computers.....but generally life has something about self-reproduction and Bejan's definition simply side-steps this. I guess, one can define life as movement and most life has to have some movement....even an oyster. But I think he reckons he is on to something BIG with his constructal law of design (note it's a LAW...not just a theory....that's a bit of a give away that he's over-claiming). Sorry, but I don't agree...and sorry Adrian, but I ended up just skimming your book...and I think this was as much as is warranted. I give it one star.

[Oj · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mindblowing bridge between physics and biology
Makes physics cool again, you know but like really for the first time
Challenges Stephen Jay Gould's notions of evolutionary randomness
Indicates an order by which entropy creates organizations predicted by physical constraints

[Mark Yashar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Among other things, the author describes the Constructal Law and its applications to biology, technology, various social systems, politics, sports, etc. Somewhat poorly written in places ...

[Thomas Mckenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason its a 3 star is because I don't have the mental capacity to keep up with what is going on.. lol

[Henrik Akselsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Matt Ridley and Jordan Peterson had a son who became a professor in theoretical physics, this book might have been the result.

[Alex Donoiu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highly repetitive ideas from one chapter to the next…this could be an essay rather than a 200+page book.

[Marcel G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it in Romanian. Interesting book.

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should probably rate 4-stars or even 5-stars for scope and for (perhaps) originality (except I truly don't know whether Dr Bejan's idea is original with him or not); but rates 2-stars or even 1-star for readability. Very, very dry. I have a math and science background, but wasn't quite up - at my advanced age - to tackling what was essentially (almost) a text book. So I'll give a compromise rating of 3- stars. If he had put questions after each chapter, it would indeed be a text book (some chapters quite advanced). Some of it was repetitious (always a hazard with non-fiction books). Also some tie-in with or discussion of 'emergence' theory would have been very useful, but I didn't see any (perhaps I skimmied too fast). Somebody - maybe even Dr. Bejan himself - could write a more readable (i.e. 'dumbed down for public consumption) version of this theory and it might be a widely read.

[Jim Heter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that should be read with an open mind, not a highly critical mindset. The constructal law is a law of nature (or engineering) not mathematics. It is more like a rule of thumb than a strict law. In any given application there are likely to be too many contingent variables for the predicted S curve growth pattern or tree-like structure to be easily visible. But the over-arching pattern and structure is clearly there, and has tremendous predictive value. It's usefulness is in the ability to set general expectations and anticipate developments. It is not so much about analyzing the past as planning for the future. With this in mind it becomes a revelation. As our view of the world becomes more and more complex, and the pace of change continues to accelerate as the number of contributors grows, this level of guidance will be sorely needed.

[Matthew Mcnallan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book delivers fantastic ideas from a physicist's perspective. It can get a bit technical (dry) so skimming in some areas was helpful. All in all, a good read for someone who is interested in further contemplation of well, everything...

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 3 out of 5]

My buddy Gary rates this 5 stars, and I think my friend Ken will as well. For me, while some parts were very interesting, and I love the overall concept of the book, some parts bored me. I also didn't understand all the math behind some of the physics.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what I hoped for. It seemed like it might be a science book with a spiritual bent, but, no. Writing was hard to follow and, while some sections peaked my interest, I've given up. At least I tried something new.

[Mike Takac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Bejan's work intriguing to a point where I used it to empirically demonstrate Thomas Jefferson’s claim about innate rights (the science of rights).

[Dave Burns]

Breakthrough or bullshit? I have no way to knowing.

[Irishgal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not going to lie, much of this book went over my head but what I could gather from the book I felt had a new perspective that did make me think of how things work in the world around me. In particular I took note of his ideas of hierarchy and what it means to pay everyone the same wage (this was only briefly discussed but his point made sense) and the idea of logical arguments. The rest on how cities lay themselves out and the flow of power were all fascinating ideas.

[Bianx · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. I am very interested in physics, astrophysics, chemistry, cosmology, astronomy, etc. The idea and summary on the back of the book were captivating and I had hoped the reading would be too, but I was very disappointed. This is an extremely hard book to read. It doesn’t seem to have any real direction, very repetitive and unclear. The words animate and inanimate were used so many times..so many times lol. I even flipped ahead through the chapters and it just seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over. 😞