Physics of Self–Organization and Evolution

This thoroughly updated version of the German authoritative work on self–organization has been completely rewritten by internationally renowned experts and experienced book authors to also include a review of more recent literature. It retains the original enthusiasm and fascination surrounding thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, synergetics, and the origin of life, representing an easily readable textbook and tutorial on this exciting field.
The book is unique in covering in details the experimental and theoretical fundamentals of self–organizing systems as well as such selected features as random processes, structural networks and multistable systems, while focusing on the physical and theoretical modeling of natural selection and evolution processes. The authors take examples from physics, chemistry, biology and social systems, and include results hitherto unpublished in English.
The result is a one–stop resource relevant for students and scientists in physics or related interdisciplinary fields, including mathematical physics, biophysics, information science and nanotechnology.


Spis treści:
Introduction to the field of self–organization.
Fundamental laws of equilibrium and non–equilibrium thermodynamics.
Evolution of the earth and the terrestrial climate.
Nonlinear dynamics, instabilities and fluctuations.
Self–reproduction, multistability and information transfer as basic mechanisms of evolution.
Competition and selection processes.
Models of evolution processes.
Self–organization of information and symbols.
On the origin of life.
Conclusion and outlook.

Nota biograficzna:
Werner Ebeling is Professor em. at the prestigious Humboldt University in Berlin.
His research interests focus on self organization, non–linear systems and dynamics and quantum statistics.
He has authored a large number of books in three languages, some of them published with Akademie–Verlag (now part of Wiley) as well as an impressive array of research papers.
He has been closely working with Rainer Feistel, who also is already author for Wiley. His research is on thermodynamics of seawater and theory of complex systems.
He also has authored many papers and books, partly together with Prof. Ebeling.

Okładka tylna:
This thoroughly updated version of the German authoritative work on self–organization has been completely rewritten by internationally renowned experts and experienced book authors to also include a review of more recent literature. It retains the original enthusiasm and fascination surrounding thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, synergetics, and the origin of life, representing an easily readable textbook and tutorial on this exciting field.
The book is unique in covering in details the experimental and theoretical fundamentals of self–organizing systems as well as such selected features as random processes, structural networks and multistable systems, while focusing on the physical and theoretical modeling of natural selection and evolution processes. The authors take examples from physics, chemistry, biology and social systems, and include results hitherto unpublished in English.
The result is a one–stop resource relevant for students and scientists in physics or related interdisciplinary fields, including mathematical physics, biophysics, information science and nanotechnology.