Thermodynamics is the study of energy exchange relationships involving heat and mechanical work. Broken down into its constituent fractions, the term thermodynamics means heat motion. It is the branch of physics dealing with the reversible conversion...

One way of understanding the environment is to understand the way matter and energy flow through the natural world. For example, it helps to know that a fundamental law of nature is that matter can be neither created nor destroyed. That law describes...

The laws of thermodynamics, in principle, describe the specifics for the transport of heat and work in thermodynamic processes. Since their conception, however, these laws have become some of the most important in all of physics and other branches of...

Van den Berg, J. H. (2004). The Two Principles Laws of Thermodynamics: A Cultural and Historical Exploration. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. ISBN 08207-0355-9. In this very accessible essay, the well-known Dutch phenomenologist and historian J. H. van den Berg reflects on...

Normally we link Groundwork columns to specific articles using the icon at left, but this column and this special issue on Katrina are entirely about limits, so we have omitted the link this time. Here's a happy thought: the Second Law of...