The Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Second Law of Thermodynamics can be stated as: Energy spontaneously tends to flow from being concentrated in one place to becoming diffused and spread out - or - disorder in a closed system will increase. This radio broadcast explains this law, its implications as to time and energy in the universe, and whether the Second Law tends to be refuted by the existence of life and the theory of evolution. The broadcast explains how the Sun-Earth system is like a steam engine where the Sun is the hot engine, the Earth is a cold sink, and the biosphere plays the part of the pistons by converting energy from the Sun into work needed to provide for life on Earth. There is discussion about the relation between the Second Law and the Big Bang, the expansion of the cosmos, and our inexorable passage through time towards the heat death of the universe; how gravity stores negative energy, which enables it to create order out of disorder; and why the Second Law may be the most fundamental law in all of science. The broadcast is 43 minutes in length. Educational levels: General public, High school