Category: Uncategorized

THE CONTEXT. “One of the founding fathers of the physics-is-information school was of course John Archibald Wheeler—Bekenstein’s PhD advisor! Wheeler (1990) is arguably his most pronounced articulation of the idea that physical objects depend in their very existence on information, as captured in the slogan ‘It from bit’.” https://lnkd.in/dHGT8xw View in LinkedIn

LAWS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. “Physico-chemical constraints might be at the origin of the structure of biological metabolic networks. In addition, simple metallic molecules that were likely found in the prebiotic environment can act as catalysts for reactions that depend on sophisticated enzymes in modern cells.” https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1002/msb.20145351 View in LinkedIn

THE CONDITION. “We can only be certain that the Second Law continues to hold in the presence of black holes if the black holes present have an entropy contributing to the total entropy of the universe.” https://lnkd.in/dHGT8xw View in LinkedIn

THE ARGUMENT. “(iv) The area of the event horizon of a black hole is the only property of a black hole which is formally similar to ordinary thermodynamic entropy in that they both tend to increase over time. (Etc).” https://lnkd.in/dHGT8xw View in LinkedIn

THE ARGUMENT. “(iii) The Second Law can only hold in the presence of black holes if the black holes present have an entropy contributing to the total entropy of the universe.“ https://lnkd.in/dHGT8xw View in LinkedIn

THE ARGUMENT. “Bekenstein’s argument can be broken down as follows:" "The universe as a whole has an entropy. (ii) The Second Law is a universal law, i.e., applies to the universe as a whole; in particular (a generalization of) it still obtains in the presence of black holes.” https://lnkd.in/dHGT8xw View in LinkedIn

CLUELESS. “For all the evidence we have, black holes may well exhibit unusual and unexpected thermodynamic behaviour—or none at all. It is certainly not automatic that the Generalized Second Law holds.” https://lnkd.in/dHGT8xw View in LinkedIn

A veritable tome by a veritable genius. View in LinkedIn

FINLAND, THE HAPPY COUNTRY. “Children are scaffolded to make meanings, instead of giving right answers, to discuss and to show their conceptions (instead of listening and memorizing) and finally to be creative and design their own learning, instead of following teachers guidance.” https://lnkd.in/dW8fMht View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this incredibly short but powerful article that pulls together some of the key ignored questions about the origin of self-sustaining and self-replicating metabolic pathways assembled into autonomous organisms, and proposes a hypothesis for the self-similarity of these pathways across many species. A remarkable article by a remarkable man. https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1002/msb.20145351 View in LinkedIn