The laws and their extensions could be applied to improving the engines driving advances in productivity. Thermodynamics was extremely useful science for a society in the throes of rapid industrialization and a shift toward a capitalistic free market. Or, phrased in terms of Clausius’ new concept of entropy, the total entropy of an isolated system will increase over time. Heat cannot spontaneously flow from a colder body to a hotter body. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. The change in the internal energy of an isolated thermodynamic system is equal to the difference between the heat supplied to the system and the amount of work done by the system on its surroundings. Their results were synthesized in the first two laws: They also observed that if you had something that was hot on one side but cold on the other, the temperature would always even out. The best a machine could possibly do was to give up a small amount of energy as wasted heat. Studying how machines, such as steam engines, could exchange heat for mechanical work and vice-versa, these physicists learned of strict limits on efficiency. In the 19th century, the first textbooks on the science of thermodynamics emerged from the work of Rudolf Clausius, in Berlin, as well as William Thomson (often called Lord Kelvin) and William Rankine, both in Glasgow. And I found myself wondering, in something of a fever-dream: Where did we ever get such a notion? And might it have something to do with why we’re so damn hard-driving, even when there could be another way?īy returning to the Victorian origins of the laws of thermodynamics, we can see how-and, perhaps, why-those laws have been broadly misconstrued and misapplied. To the contrary, for the first time it struck me: What a remarkably strange view of the world. From where I sat now, however-in an intolerably hot attic, peering out at a three-dimensional puzzle of zinc roofs gleaming in the sun-it was hard to feel the intuition behind such thermodynamic legislation. As usually presented, these laws say physical systems naturally dissipate energy and flow toward a state of cold disorder. You might remember something about the augustly named “Laws of Thermodynamics” from a high-school physics course. I happened to be working at the time on a book chapter about classical thermodynamics. They’re just so damn hard-driving.”Īfter the call, I tried to turn back to my writing. “These diligent farmers hit the soil so often and so hard,” Taylor said, “the flywheel of ecology can’t get spinning. What if we had a different ur-myth about energy and order in the universe? The roots and microbes of perennials keep organic carbon and nitrogen locked in, whereas the incessant tilling required to grow annuals lets those precious compounds escape. He was telling me about the great quantity of carbon emissions that can be avoided when broad-acre farmers choose to plant perennials instead of annuals. Several days later, the mercury had climbed a few degrees higher, and I was on the phone with Phil Taylor, a biogeochemist who has largely abandoned his academic career to work toward reform in industrial agriculture. There are also, Romain suggested, examples that are more profound and consequential. The same could be said about making a lay-up in basketball, hitting a backhand in tennis, or looking natural in a photograph. If you try hard at it, you will not succeed. Romain, who is a scholar of ancient Chinese texts, shared an idea that had emerged from his research: There are certain goals that are most effectively pursued by not striving directly toward them. At a sidewalk café, we sipped burnt espresso and watched the air shimmer weirdly over the cobbles. Last summer, in the early days of a heat wave that would culminate in the highest temperatures ever recorded in Paris, I biked across the city to meet my friend Romain Graziani.
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