Cosmogenesis: The Growth of Order in the Universe - Softcover

Layzer, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195069080 ISBN 13: 9780195069082

Publisher: Oxford University Press USA, 1990

Synopsis

This fascinating study of chaos and order in the universe marks a new direction in scientific approaches to these areas. Rejecting Laplacian notions of `meaningless', coincidental order and of a ruling tendency towards dissolution and chaos, Layzer draws physics, biology, chemistry, and astronomy into a fluid philosophy of order, able to accommodate the individual act and random event without causing structural breakdown.

Layzer manages to be both entertaining and very convincing at the same time. Among the intriguing side issues he brings up are a new theory for the origins of the universe and a physical explanation for why off-key musical notes jar.

About this title

About the Author

David Layzer is the Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University. He is the author of Constructing the Universe.

From the Back Cover

Eminent Harvard astrophysicist David Layzer presents a unified theory of order in the universe--from permanence, stability, and orderliness of sub-atomic particles to the evolution of the human mind. Cosmogenesis is the first extended account of a controversial theory that connects quantum mechanics with the second law of thermodynamics and presents novel resolutions of longstanding paradoxes in these theories.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195069080
• ISBN 13: 9780195069082
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336