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A review by michielstock
Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization by Adrian Bejan
2.0
Like some people before me, I was was somewhat disappointed in this book.
First of all, Bejan is very arrogant. He is not the first, nor will be the last popular science author to be this, but it quite insufferable of him to keep repeating that he has surpassed Darwin and can make every (important) thing in nature clear by performing his subfield of thermodynamics. Of course prof. Bejan keeps reminding us that it is only natural that the ignorant masses can't recognize his genius. (And he doesn't like Communism).
The so-called constructal law is extremely vage. Design in nature arises to maximizes a 'flow'. What kind of flow? Would it prefer a flow of 100 l of water per second or of 100 l of air? Is there some theoretical derivation of this law, based on the laws of thermodynamics? Why don't I know this if I have read the book?
No formal discription of the law is given. Every chapter contains a couple of (rather badly structured) examples. Though some of them are quite interesting, I fail to see any need for any constructal low. Trees are tree-shaped because they need to keep a flow of water (to transport nutrients, keep their cells turgid and keep their floem moving). This could be predicted by the principles of evolution, same for the animals' movement.
In short, this book could be really interesting but should have been better (and more critically!) edited.
First of all, Bejan is very arrogant. He is not the first, nor will be the last popular science author to be this, but it quite insufferable of him to keep repeating that he has surpassed Darwin and can make every (important) thing in nature clear by performing his subfield of thermodynamics. Of course prof. Bejan keeps reminding us that it is only natural that the ignorant masses can't recognize his genius. (And he doesn't like Communism).
The so-called constructal law is extremely vage. Design in nature arises to maximizes a 'flow'. What kind of flow? Would it prefer a flow of 100 l of water per second or of 100 l of air? Is there some theoretical derivation of this law, based on the laws of thermodynamics? Why don't I know this if I have read the book?
No formal discription of the law is given. Every chapter contains a couple of (rather badly structured) examples. Though some of them are quite interesting, I fail to see any need for any constructal low. Trees are tree-shaped because they need to keep a flow of water (to transport nutrients, keep their cells turgid and keep their floem moving). This could be predicted by the principles of evolution, same for the animals' movement.
In short, this book could be really interesting but should have been better (and more critically!) edited.