Overview
This book promotes a novel approach, by emphasising the physical concept of action, to complement that of energy. It aims to show that too much attention may have been devoted to energy in biothermodynamics and insufficient attention to action. This relative neglect may now be limiting our capacity to understand how ecosystems function, how they evolved and if they can be sustained, as human demands for food, shelter and transport increase. Ivan Kennedy introduces the concept of 'action', a thermodynamic property related to entropy, resulting from impulses of energy on matter producing force, based on the sole principle of the conservation of momentum. The significance of action was implied by Max Planck and Albert Einstein early in the 20th Century when they defined the quantum of action, h. The action resonance theory (ART) transcends disciplines and may reverse the alienation pointed to by C. P. Snow in 'The Two Cultures'. Originally designed to solve specific biological problems, such as ATP synthesis, its role in muscle function and nitrogenase activity, ART has universal significance for sustaining the earth's ecosystems in the face of global problems such as the greenhouse effect. Using an elementary mathematical treatment only, this book proposes that action resonance is valid from microcosm to macrocosm, providing a valid version of the unified field theory sought by Einstein and others.