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Time's Second Arrow - Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong

By Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong

Release Date: 2026-02-10

Genre: Physics

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A distinguished geoscientist and rising-star astrobiologist offer a stunning new theory upending 150 years of established scienceā€”and an inspiring new vision of our universe.

Of 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 order 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 dissolutionā€”rendering the intricate order of a butterflyā€™s wing, the much-vaunted complexity of the human brain, merely incidental?

In Timeā€™s Second Arrow, 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 ā€œarrow of timeā€ā€”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 phenomenonā€”not only in biology, but in the entire atomic, chemical, mineral, and physical universe. Showing how a natural process of selection for increasing function has shaped the universe since its inception, they explore how this new law could possibly help us identify life on other planets andā€”perhapsā€”even understand the purpose and meaning of life on Earth in a new way.

Elegantly written and deeply moving, Timeā€™s Second Arrow reveals how our cosmic inheritance includes, even alongside loss and decay, a drive toward wondrous invention and progressā€”ultimately revising our understanding of the universe and our place within it.

Time's Second Arrow - Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong

By Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong

Release Date: 2026-02-10

Genre: Physics

(0 ratings)
Read Download
A distinguished geoscientist and rising-star astrobiologist offer a stunning new theory upending 150 years of established scienceā€”and an inspiring new vision of our universe.

Of 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 order 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 dissolutionā€”rendering the intricate order of a butterflyā€™s wing, the much-vaunted complexity of the human brain, merely incidental?

In Timeā€™s Second Arrow, 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 ā€œarrow of timeā€ā€”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 phenomenonā€”not only in biology, but in the entire atomic, chemical, mineral, and physical universe. Showing how a natural process of selection for increasing function has shaped the universe since its inception, they explore how this new law could possibly help us identify life on other planets andā€”perhapsā€”even understand the purpose and meaning of life on Earth in a new way.

Elegantly written and deeply moving, Timeā€™s Second Arrow reveals how our cosmic inheritance includes, even alongside loss and decay, a drive toward wondrous invention and progressā€”ultimately revising our understanding of the universe and our place within it.

More by Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong

The Story of Earth

Science Matters

Symphony in C

Time's Second Arrow

La historia de la Tierra

Breve storia della Terra

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