Physical Law Keeps Life from Starting by Itself
Ilya Prigogine, a Russian-American physical chemist, developed a method for calculating thermodynamic quantities. He published his method in a small volume entitled Introduction to Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes in 1955. He published the second and third editions in 1961 and 1967. In 1977 Prigogine received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Click the link below entitled "Prigogine's Explanation of His Method" to see the relevant passages from Prigogine’s book. He introduces his method by defining various symbols and presenting several equations. People who are used to mathematical notation may wish to see how Prigogine expressed his ideas.
For those who are not used to mathematical notation, after link Prigogine’s method is explained in words without using mathematical notation.
Click the link below entitled "Prigogine's Explanation of His Method" to see the relevant passages from Prigogine’s book. He introduces his method by defining various symbols and presenting several equations. People who are used to mathematical notation may wish to see how Prigogine expressed his ideas.
For those who are not used to mathematical notation, after link Prigogine’s method is explained in words without using mathematical notation.
Applying Prigogine’s Method to Calculate Thermodynamic Quantities
Irreversible and Reversible Processes: Since Prigogine’s book is about irreversible processes, we need to understand and distinguish between irreversible and reversible processes.
An example of an irreversible process is the one that happens when one puts a drop of ink into a bottle of clear water. Over time the ink diffuses through the water, making it darker in color. This process is not reversible because the dark water will never spontaneously become clear by making a drop of ink pop up out of the water.
An example of an irreversible process is the one that happens when one puts a drop of ink into a bottle of clear water. Over time the ink diffuses through the water, making it darker in color. This process is not reversible because the dark water will never spontaneously become clear by making a drop of ink pop up out of the water.
An example of a reversible process is one that could happen if one were to drop a perfectly elastic ball on a perfectly hard floor. Under these ideal conditions, the ball will bounce back up to the height from which it was dropped. As the ball falls, it converts the potential energy of gravity into the energy of motion in the downward direction. When it hits the floor, all the energy of motion changes from the downward direction to the upward direction. The ball will rise, more and more slowly, until all the energy of motion is turned back into potential energy when the ball rises to the height from which it was dropped. The ball will go on falling, bouncing, and rising forever. In practice, reversible processes like this never occur, because some of the energy is dissipated as heat when the ball hits the floor; but if the ball is very elastic and the floor is very hard, the ball will rise almost to the height from which it was dropped, and the ball can go on bouncing for a long time.
Some people may simply accept the truth of the impossibility of random action assembling the DNA of any single-celled, self-replicating living being. If they do, they may skip the part above entitled “Random action cannot produce living beings” and click the link that says "Reasons for Not Applying Thermodynamics."