{"product_id":"times-second-arrow-evolution-order-and-a-new-law-of-nature","title":"Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature","description":"\u003cp\u003eOf the codified laws of nature, famously, only one inscribes a direction to time: the dreaded second law of thermodynamics, which declares that the disorder of a closed system tends to increase as time passes. New shoes eventually scuff, our bodies weaken and die. Yet our senses tell us that miraculous \u003cem\u003eorder\u003c\/em\u003e constantly emerges, too: children grow and learn; spontaneous patterns manifest in murmurations of starlings. Can it be true that the laws of our universe mandate only dissolution--rendering the intricate order of a butterfly's wing, the much-vaunted complexity of the human brain, merely incidental?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eTime's Second Arrow\u003c\/em\u003e, star scientists Robert M. Hazen and Michael L. Wong overturn more than a century of scientific canon, arguing that, in fact, there must be a second \"arrow of time\"--a heretofore missing law of nature that explains how the marvelously complex constituents of our universe came to be. Evolution, they boldly propose, is a universal phenomenon--not only in biology, but in the entire atomic, chemical, mineral, and physical universe. Showing how a natural process of \u003cem\u003eselection for increasing function\u003c\/em\u003e has shaped the universe since its inception, they explore how this new law could possibly help us identify life on other planets and--perhaps--even understand the purpose and meaning of life on Earth in a new way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElegantly written and deeply moving, \u003cem\u003eTime's Second Arrow\u003c\/em\u003e reveals how our cosmic inheritance includes, even alongside loss and decay, a drive toward wondrous invention and progress--ultimately revising our understanding of the universe and our place within it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Michael L Wong, Robert M Hazen","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47289030410476,"sku":"9781324105480","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9781324105480.jpg?v=1770585281","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/times-second-arrow-evolution-order-and-a-new-law-of-nature","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}