This book is a brief and accessible popular science text intended for a broad audience and of particular interest also to science students and specialists. Using a minimum of mathematics, a number of qualitative and quantitative examples, and clear illustrations, the author explains the science of thermodynamics in its full historical context, focusing on the concepts of energy and its availability and transformation in thermodynamic processes. His ultimate aim is to gain a deep understanding of the second law—the increase of entropy—and its rather disheartening message of a universe descending inexorably into chaos and disorder. It also examines the connection between the second law and why things go wrong in our daily lives. Readers will enhance their science literacy and feel more at home on the science side of author C. P. Snow's celebrated two-culture, science-humanities divide, and hopefully will feel more at home in the universe knowing that the disorder we deal with in our daily lives is not anyone's fault but Nature's.
Author Biography:
Dr. Robert Fleck is an emeritus professor of Physics and Astronomy in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL, where for four decades he developed and taught a large number and a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in physics, astronomy, general science, and history of science. For inspiring his students with his passion and enthusiasm for teaching and lifelong learning, he received the University Outstanding Teaching Award in 2000 and 2015, as well as over a dozen faculty appreciation awards from graduating senior classes. Dr. Fleck is a NASA and National Science Foundation supported star and planet formation theorist; his focus in the history of science is on the cultural parallels of science, particularly those pertaining to the visual arts. Dr. Fleck has published in a wide variety of disciplines, including physics and astronomy, history of science, and art-science connections, and he has held appointments as a visiting professor at both the University of Kentucky and the University of Massachusetts, a visiting scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a lecturer at the University of Maryland, European Division, and a Perren visiting fellow at the University of London; he also pioneered Embry-Riddle’s study abroad program, teaching classes in England, France, Italy, and Greece. Dr. Fleck earned a B.S. in physics from the University of Florida, an M.A. in astronomy from the University of South Florida, and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Florida. Most recently, he has completed three book-length manuscripts: Entrophy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or Why Things Tend to Go Wrong and Seem to Get Worse, The Evolution of Scientific Thought: A Cultural History of Western Science from the Paleolithic to the Present, and Art History as Science History from the Paleolithic to the Present. When not reading or writing, Dr. Fleck enjoys swimming, surfing, cycling, and traveling.
