In hmolscience, Tony Rothman (1953-) is an American theoretical physicist noted, in sociological thermodynamics, for 1989 skeptical critique of social applications of the second law.
Overview
In 1989, Rothman published Science a la Mode, a set of iconoclastic and witty essays are about what happens when scientists jump on band-wagons, in which he applies creative skepticism to contemporary fashions in science, including the "standard model" big bang theory, geodesic domes, the concept of nuclear winter, and sociological applications of the second law of thermodynamics.
Its chapter on evolution and entropy, covers entropy as viewed in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, information theory, and evolution, and considers whether the systems are isolated, closed, or open, with recourse to discussions on whether variables are deterministic or probabilistic.
References
1. Rothman, Tony. (1989). Science a la Mode: Physical Fashions and Fictions (§: Entropy as Evolution, pgs. 75-108). Princeton University Press.
Further reading
● Romm, Joseph J. (1990). “Myths and Misses: Science a la Mode: Physical Fasions and Fictions”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, pgs. 39-40, Jun.
External links
● Tony Rothman – Wikipedia.
