LAWS OF SCIENCE
"LAWS" OF NATURE , JAMES H. SHEA, Editor, Journal of Geological Education,
"The most serious problem with this concept grows out of the fact that it uses a
metaphor, the Laws that govern or control nature.... We seem to believe that there
literally are such laws. The concept is anachronistic in that it originated at a time when
the Almighty was thought to have established the laws of nature and to have decreed
that nature must obey them.... It is a great pity for the Philosophy of Science that the
word 'law' was ever introduced.",< Geology>, v. 10 p. 458
1st Law of Thermodynamics
ALBERT EINSTEIN ,< Science>, Vol. 157, p. 509, "Classical thermodynamics...only
physical theory of universal content concerning which I am convinced that within the
framework of applicability of its b4sk concepts, it will never be overthrown."
ISAAC ASIMOV , "This law is considered the most powerful and most fundamental
generalization about the universe that scientists have ever been able to make. No one
knows why energy is conserved... All that anyone can say is that in over a century and
a quarter of careful measurement scientists have never been able to point to a definite
violation of energy conservation, either in the familiar everyday surroundings about us,
or in the heavens above or in the atoms within.", <Smithsonian Institution Journal>,
1970, p.6
ORIGIN OF MATTER , ISAAC ASIMOV, "Perhaps in an infinite sea of nothingness,
globs of positive and negative energy in equal - sized pairs are constantly forming, and
after passing through evolutionary changes, combining once more and vanishing. We
are in one of these blobs in the period of time between nothing about it.", <Science
Digest>, Vol.69, p.69
2nd Law of Thermodynamics
FAMILIAR TO EVERYONE , ISAAC ASIMOV, "Another way of stating the second law
then is 'The universe is constantly getting more disorderly!' Viewed that way we can
see the second Law all about us. We have to work hard to straighten a room, but left to
itself it becomes a mess again very quickly and very easily. Even if we never enter it, it
becomes dusty and musty. How difficult to maintain houses, and machinery, and our
own bodies in perfect working order: how easy to let them deteriorate. In fact, all we
have to do is nothing, and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out,
all by itself and that is what the second law is all about.", <Smithsonian Institution
Journal>, June, 1970, p. 6
HOPELESS , SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON, "...if your theory is found to be against the
second law of thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to
collapse in deepest humiliation.", <Nature of the Physical World> p.74
JUST STATISTICAL? A.B. PIPPARD, Cambridge Univ., "There is thus no justification
for the view, often glibly repeated, that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is only
statistically true, in the sense that microscopic violations repeatedly occur, but never
violations of any serious magnitude. On the contrary, no evidence has ever been
presented that the Second Law breaks down under any circumstances.", <Elements of
Chemical Thermodynamics for Advanced Students of Physics>, p.99-100
NO WAY AROUND , FRANK A. GRECO, Harvard Medical School, "Being a
generalization of experience, the second law could only be invalidated by an actual
engine. In other words, the question, 'Can the second law of thermodynamics be
circumvented?' is not well worded but could be answered only if the model
incorporated every feature of the real world. But an answer can readily be given to the
question, 'Has the second law of thermodynamics been circumvented Not yet."
<American Laboratory>, 10/82, p.88.
COMPREHENSIVE APPLICATION , RICHARD MORRIS, "The second law of
thermodynamics has a chameleon like character. It can be expressed in more different
ways than any of the other laws of physics. The reason that it takes so many different
forms is that it is the most general of all the laws that scientists have discovered. It
applies to practically everything." <Time's Arrows: Scientfic Attitudes Toward Time>,
1984, p.113
ENTROPY OF INFORMATION , TOM SIEGFRIED<, DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
5/14/90>, "Is there a real connection between entropy in physics and the entropy of
information? ....The equations of information theory and the second law are the same,
suggesting that the idea of entropy is something fundamental..." [Quotes Robert W.
Lucky Ex. Director of Research, AT&T, Bell Laboratories & John A. Wheeler, of
Princeton & Univ. of TX, Austin]
EVOLUTIONARY "FAITH" , V. F. VEISSKOFF, Head Dept. Physics, M.I.T., "The
evolutionary history of the world from the 'big bang' to the present universe is a series
of gradual steps from the simple to the complicated, from the unordered to the
organized, from the formless gas of elementary particles to the morphic atoms and
molecules and further to the still more structured liquids and solids, and finally to the
sophisticated living organisms. There is an obvious tendency of nature from disorder to
order and organization, <American Scientist>, Vol.65, July/Aug, 1977, p.409
Applies To Open System
WORKS GREAT , JOHN ROSS, Harvard University, <CHEMICAL AND
ENGINEERING NEWS>, p.40 July 7, 1980, "Ordinarily .the second law is stated for
isolated systems, but the second law applies equally well to open systems."
IMMATERIAL , ARNOLD SOMMERFEL,, "...the quantity of entropy generated locally
cannot be negative irrespective of whether the system is isolated or not."
<THERMODYNAMICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS>, p.155
USEFUL ABSTRACTION , RICHARD MORRIS, "An isolated system is one that does
not interact with its surroundings. Naturally there are no completely isolated system in
nature. Everything interacts with its environment to some extent. Nevertheless, the
concept, like many other abstractions that are used in physics, is extremely useful. If we
are able to understand the behavior in ideal cases, we can gain a great deal of
understanding about processes that take place in the real world. In fact treating a real
system as an isolated one is often an excellent approximation.", <Time's Arrows>, p.113
UNSATISFACTORY "EXPLANATION " Charles J. Smith, "biological systems are open
and exchange both energy and matter. This explanation, however, is not completely
satisfying, because it still leaves open the problem of how or why the ordering process
has arisen (an apparent lowering of the entropy), and a number of scientists have
wrestled with this issue. Bertalanffy (1968) called the relation between irreversible
thermodynamics and information theory one of the most fundamental unsolved
problems in biology." <Biosystems>, Vol.1, p259.
SURPLUS ENERGY: INSUFFICIENT! GEORGE GAYLORD SIMPSON & W.S. BECK,
"But the simple expenditure of energy is not sufficient to develop and maintain order.
A bull in a china shop performs work, but he neither creates nor maintains
organization. The work needed is particular work; it must follow specifications; it
requires information on how to proceed.", <AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGY>, p.
466
INFORMATION REQUIRED , EIGEN (Nobel Laureate) "Here at the molecular level
are the roots of the old puzzle about the chicken or the egg. Which came first, function
or information? As we shall show, neither one could proceed the other; they had to
evolve together" <EVOLUTION>, p.13, NOV.10, 1982.
EVOLUTION REQUIRES, ENERGY & INFORMATION
Increasing Energy & Information Requires "Open System" (Outside Source
1. Outside Source For Energy is the Sun.
2. Outside Source For Information is ????
MOST PROBABLE , PETER T. MORA, National Institute of Health, "Crystallization
occurs because it leads to the lowest energy state, and to the most stable arrangement of
atoms or molecules under the given conditions. Crystallization leads to simple, very
uniform repeating structures, which are inert. These structures do not function, ;and are
not designed by function." <Nature>, Vol. 199, 1%3, p 216.
STRUCTURE CONFUSED WITH ORDER , RICHARD MORRIS, "For example, when
a crystal grows in a liquid, structure appears that was not present before the process of
crystallization began. As the crystal becomes larger, the entropy of the system does
increase…The appearance of structure does not always imply an increase in order,
even though "structure and "order" are equated in our everyday speech." <TIME'S
ARROWS>, p.119.
Applies To Life
LIFE PROCESSES , Harold Blum, Princeton Univ., "No matter how carefully we
examine the energetics of living systems we find no evidence of defeat of
thermodynamic principles, but we do encounter a degree of complexity not witnessed
in the non - living world." <Time's Arrow and Evolution,> p.14
LIFE WON'T FORM , ILYA PRIGOGIN (Nobel Laureate) "Unfortunately this principle
cannot explain the formation of biological structures. The probability that at ordinary
temperatures a macroscopic number of molecules is assembled to give rise to the highly
ordered structures and to the coordinated functions characterizing living organisms is
vanishingly small. The idea of spontaneous genesis of life in its present form is
therefore highly improbable, even on the scale of billions of years during which
prebiotic evolution occurred." <Physics Today>, Vol.25 p.28.
Observed In Life Of The Past
UNEQUALED BEGINNING DEGENERATED , STEPHEN J. GOULD, Harvard, "I'll
say it once more, maximal diversity of structural design right al the beginning with the
history of life being the story of reduction of the initial maximal diversity by the
extinction and loss of most of the lineage's and the failure of any of the survivors...ever
again to generate fundamental new design", S.M.U. Speech, Oct.2, 1990
MUTATIONS DEFINED , THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY, "....one can say that
mutations are owing to incorrect copying, to occasional mistakes in the generally so
remarkably accurate process of replication.... You may, if you wish, compare mutations
to accidental misspellings or misprints which even the most experienced copyist may
from time to time....harmfulness of most mutants is just what could be reasonably
expected. ....an accident, a random change, in any delicate mechanism can hardly be
expected to improve it. Poking a stick into the machinery of one's watch or into one's
radio set can hardly be expected to make it work better.", <HEREDITY AND THE
NATURE OF MAN>, p.126
<"SLIPS" PRODUCE BRAIN??,> JEAN ROSTAND, "No, decidedly, I cannot make
myself think that these 'slips' of heredity have been able, even with the cooperation of
natural selection, even with the advantage of the immense periods of time in which
evolution works on life, to build the entire world, with its structural prodigality and
refinements, its astounding 'adaptations,...I cannot persuade myself to think that the
eye, the ear, the human brain have been formed in this way; " <The Orion Book of
Evolution>, p. 17
MUTATIONS ARE NON-PRODUCTIVE , STEPHEN J. GOULD, Harvard, "A
mutation doesn't produce major new raw material. You don't make a new species by
mutating the species,. That's a common idea people have, that evolution is due to
random mutations. A mutation is <not> the cause of evolutionary change.", Lecture,
Hobart & William Smith College, 14/2/1980
BIGGER AND MORE DIVERSE , VON ENGELN & CASTER, "Also that mammalian
life was richer in kinds, of larger sizes, and had a more abundant expression in Pliocene
than in later times.", <GEOLOGY>, p.19
GIANTS OF THE PAST , "Leakey...had been scouring the globe since 1931. Over the
years he has unearthed the bones of an ancient pig as big as a rhino, a six foot tall sheep
a twelve foot tall bird and the flat - topped skull of the erect 'Nutcracker man'."; <TIME
MAGAZINE>, March 10, 1961
BIGGER BUGS , CLIFFORD SIMAK, <TRILOBITE, DINOSAUR AND MAN>, p.158 .
"In general all the Pennsylvanian insects were larger than the ones we know today.",
Observed throughout Universe
DEGENERATING UNIVERSE , LINCOLN BARNETT, <THE UNIVERSE AND DR.
EINSTEIN>, "The sun is slowly but surely burning out, the stars are dying embers and
everywhere in the cosmos heat is turning into cold, matter is dissolving into radiation,
and energy is being dissipated into empty space. The universe is thus progressing to an
ultimate 'heat death'. . . And there is no way of avoiding this destiny. For the fateful
principle known as the second law of thermodynamics, which stands today as the
principal pillar of classical physics left intact by the march of science, proclaims that the
fundamental processes of nature are irreversible. Nature just moves one way.", p.102
OBSERVED DETERIORATION , FRED L. WHIPPLE, Dir., Smithsonian Astro. Obs.,
"Comets tend to split in pieces, particularly when they are near the Sun or Jupiter, but
also when they are quite undisturbed in space. Some comets seem to tire out and die.",
<MYSTERY OF COMETS>, 1985, p.93
STARS THEORETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE , J. C. BRANDT, "Contemporary opinion on
star formation holds that the objects called protostars reformed as condensations from
interstellar gas. This condensation process is very difficult theoretically and no essential
theoretical understanding can be claimed; in fact, some theoretical evidence argues
strongly against the possibility of star formation. However, we know that the stars
exist, and we must do our best to account for them.", <THE SUN AND STARS>, p. 111
STARS UNEXPECTED , GEOFFREY BURBIDGE, Director, Kitt Peak National
Observatory, "If stars did not exist, it would be easy to prove that this is what we
expect.", <STELLAR STRUCTURE>, p.577
GALAXIES UNEXPECTED , MARTIN REES, Astrophysicist, "The most basic
questions about galaxies are still not understood. If galaxies didn't exist, we would
have no problem explaining that fact.", <The Dallas Morning News>, Aug.15, 1988
GALAXIES "THEORETICALLY" IMPOSSIBLE , JAMES TREFIL, Prof. Physics, George
Mason U., "It seems that the more we learn about the basic laws of nature, the more
those laws seem to tell us that the visible matter - the stuff we can see - shouldn't be
arranged the way it is. There shouldn't be galaxies out there at all, and even if there are
galaxies, they shouldn't be grouped together the way they are.... The problem of
explaining the existence of galaxies has proved to be one of the thorniest in cosmology.
By all rights, they just shouldn't be there, yet there they sit. It's hard to convey the
frustration that this simple fact induces among scientist. Despite what you may read in
the press, we still have no answer to the question of why the sky is full of galaxies,
although we've succeeded in eliminating more wrong answers. <DARKSIDE OF THE
UNIVERSE>, 1988, pp.2, 55
"THE FACE OF GOD, TAKE 2" "Last year when it was announced that such
variations had been detected for the first time by the Cosmic Background Explorer
satellite, there was tremendous excitement among cosmologist, and even some lose talk
of having seen the face of God...The variations the satellite observed occurred over
areas of the sky the width of 14 full moons - areas much too large to have been the
actual seeds of clusters of galaxies." <Discover>, 12/93, p.34.
ORIGIN OF SOLAR SYSTEM , SIR H. JEFFRIES, Cambridge, "I think all suggested
accounts of the origin of the Solar System are subject to serious objections. The
conclusion in the present state of the subject would be that the system cannot exist.",
THE EARTH, 1970, p.359. FRED WHIPPLE, Harvard "All of the hypotheses so far
presented have failed, or remain unproved, when physical theory is properly applied."
ORBITING THE SUN, 1981, p.284. NAFI TOKSOZ, M.I.T., "It's far easier to explain
why the moon shouldn't be there than to explain its existence.", <Science 81>, 3/81,
p.120.
ORIGIN OF ORDER? , PAUL C.W. DAVIES, Kings College, London, "The greatest
puzzle is where all the order in the universe carne from originally. How did the cosmos
get wound up, if the Second Law of Thermodynamics predicts asymmetric unwinding
toward disorder?" Universe In Reverse," <SECOND LOOK>, 1, 1979, p.27
Demands Beginning, A Creator
DEMANDS BEGINNING , ISAAC ASIMOV, "As far as we know, all changes are in the
direction of increasing entropy, of increasing disorder, of increasing randomness, of
running down. Yet the universe was once in a position from which it could run down
for trillions of years. How did it get into that position?" <Science Digest>, May 1973,
pp.76-77
ONE ADEQUATE CAUSE , H.J. LIPSON, Physics, U. of Manchester, "I think however
that we should go further than this and admit that the only accepted explanation is
creation. I know that is anathema to physicists, as it is to me, but we must not reject a
theory that we do not like if the experimental evidence supports it.", <Physics
Bulletin>,Vol.31, 1980, p.138
POINTS TO CREATOR , G.J. VAN WYLEN, RICHARD SONNTAG, "...we see the
second law of thermodynamics as a description of the prior and continuing work of a
creator, who also holds the answer to our future destiny and that of the universe."<
FUNDAMENTALS OF CLASSICAL, THERMODYNAMICS>, 1985, p.232.
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