An acceptable copy. Tape repair to wraps at spine. General wear and price sticker to wraps. Light soiling to page edges. Pages are otherwise clean, tight. Forward by Alvin Toffler. A serviceable reading copy. B&W illustrations

Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures, Second Edition presents a comprehensive introduction to 20th century thermodynamics that can be applied to both equilibrium and non-equilibrium systems, unifying what was traditionally divided into 'thermodynamics' and 'kinetics' into one theory of irreversible processes. This comprehensive text, suitable for introductory as well as advanced courses on thermodynamics, has been widely used by chemists, physicists, engineers and geologists. Fully revised and expanded, this new edition includes the following updates and features: Includes a completely new chapter on Principles of Statistical Thermodynamics. Presents new material on solar and wind energy flows and energy flows of interest to engineering. Covers new material on self-organization in non-equilibrium systems and the thermodynamics of small systems. Highlights a wide range of applications relevant to students across physical sciences and engineering courses. Introduces students to computational methods using updated Mathematica codes. Includes problem sets to help the reader understand and apply the principles introduced throughout the text. Solutions to exercises and supplementary lecture material provided online at http://sites.google.com/site/modernthermodynamics/. Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures, Second Edition is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students taking a course in thermodynamics.

In this book, after discussing the fundamental problems of current science and other philosophic concepts, beginning with controversies between Heraclitus and Parmenides, Ilya Prigogine launches into a message of great hope: the future has not been determined. Contrary to globalisation and the apparent contemporary mass culture society, individual behaviour is beginning to increasingly become the key factor which governs the evolution of both the world and society as a whole. It is a message that challenges existing widespread views, implicitly or explicitly, through mass communication, moreover the importance of the individual's actions implies a reflection of each person on the responsibilities that each one assumes when taking or acting upon a decision. This responsibility is associated with the freedom of thought as well as a critical analysis of fashions, customs, preconceived ideas, and ideologies, externally imposed: exactly contrary to the ideas of those who wish us to be "perfect consumers" in a world dominated only by monetary wealth. Challenging this drive towards the elimination of freedom of though in the individual is now imperative if we are to save man and his planet from catastrophe which seems to be ever imminent and (unfortunately) irreversible. This last book of Ilya Prigogine provides a small, disputable, but nonetheless valuable contribution towards that end.