Adrian Bejan

Freedom and evolution are the defining physical phenomenon of nature. Everywhere we look the image is changing because its parts are moving, flowing, and morphing. Without freedom to change there is nothing, no image, no time direction, no evolution, therefore no future.

This book establishes firmly the concepts freedom and evolution in physics, in all the realms, animate, inanimate, human and not human. It begins with familiar designs that are around us and inside us, such as the ‘trees’ of river basins, human lungs and city traffic. All flow systems are driven by power from natural engines everywhere, and endlessly change shape. Along with freedom and evolution, other concepts acquire a solid physics foundation: social organization, innovation, hierarchy, wealth, inequality, rankings, complexity, diversity, images, drawings, designs, economies of scale, diminishing returns, discipline, and science itself.

Written for wide audiences of all ages, including readers interested in science, fun with ideas, design in nature, history and the future, the book shows how many “design change” and “freedom” manifestations sustain the evolution of nature, society and technology. Science evolves because of freedom, and freedom thrives because of science.

The Physics of Life explores the roots of the big question by examining the deepest urges and properties of living things, both animate and inanimate: how to live longer, with food, warmth, power, movement and free access to other people and surroundings. Bejan explores controversial and relevant issues such as sustainability, water and food supply, fuel, and economy, to critique the state in which the world understands positions of power and freedom. Breaking down concepts such as desire and power, sports health and culture, the state of economy, water and energy, politics and distribution, Bejan uses the language of physics to explain how each system works in order to clarify the meaning of evolution in its broadest scientific sense, moving the reader towards a better understanding of the world’s systems and the natural evolution of cultural and political development.

The Physics of Life argues that the evolution phenomenon is much broader and older than the evolutionary designs that constitute the biosphere, empowering readers with a new view of the globe and the future, revealing that the urge to have better ideas has the same physical effect as the urge to have better laws and better government. This is evolution explained loudly but also elegantly, forging a path that flows sustainability.

Design in Nature (2012)

Shape and Structure, from Engineering to Nature (2000)

La Loi Constructale (2005)

Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics (2007)

Design with Constructal Theory (2008)

Constructal Law and the Unifying Principle of Design (2013)

Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics (2016)

Convection Heat Transfer (2013)

Convection in Porous Media (2013)

​For a complete list of publications, click on links below:

http://www.ae-info.org/ae/User/Bejan_Adrian

http://www.mems.duke.edu/faculty/adrian-bejan