Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures / Thermodynamique: Du moteur thermique aux structures dissipatives

This is neither a university treatise nor a textbook, butPrigogine's fundamental work and the basis of all hisphilosophical essays. Thermodynamics ends with severalpages on the subject of time which are a review of theconclusion to The End of Certainty.Each one of the book's twenty chapters concludes withnumerous examples followed by a series of exercises (thecorrect answers are not given), which serve to helpfamiliarise the reader with the theoretical material justpresented. The book begins with an explanation of thefundamental concepts of thermodynamics, followed by thefirst law of thermodynamics, known as the law of energyconservation, and the second law of thermodynamics, known as the law of entropy. After describing theapplication of thermodynamics to chemical reactions, theauthors explain Prigogine's theory of dissipativestructures, which they see as the hieden explanation thatsheds light on and will foster a better understanding ofthermodynamics.Ilya Prigogine received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry forhis research into dissipative structures at the Universityof Austin, Texas.Dilip Kondepudi teaches chemistry at the University ofTexas.