For a long time turbulence was identified with disorder or noise. Today we know that this is not the case.

Indeed, while turbulent motion appears as irregular or chaotic on the macroscopic scale, it is, on the contrary, highly organized on the microscopic scale.

The multiple space and time scales involved in turbulence correspond to the coherent behavior of millions and millions of molecules.

Viewed in this way, the transition from laminar flow to turbulence is a process of self-organization.

Part of the energy of the system, which in laminar flow was in the thermal motion of the molecules, is being transferred to macroscopic organized motion.

Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers,
Order Out Of Chaos

Our modern understanding of energy includes a number of profound realizations.

That mass and energy are equivalent.

That many conversions link various kinds of energies.

That no energy is lost during these conversions (the first law of thermodynamics).

And that this conservation of energy is inexorably accompanied by a loss of utility (the second law of thermodynamics).

The second law addresses the inescapable reality that the potential for useful work steadily diminishes as we move along energy conversion chains.

There is a measure associated with this loss of useful energy, and it is called entropy: while energy is conserved in any conversion, the conversion can only increase the entropy of the system as a whole.

There is nothing we can do about this decrease of utility.

Loss of complexity and the rise of homogeneity are the unavoidable consequences of this unidirectional entropic dissipation in any closed system.

Vaclav Smil, Energies

It is very important to emphasize that the behavior of systems depends on their history.

Where will the system go when we reach a bifurcation point? How will the system choose?

There is an irreducible random element. The macroscopic equation cannot predict the path the system will take.

Turning to a microscopic description will not help. We are faced with chance events very similar to the fall of dice.

Here another interesting question arises: In the world around us, some basic simple symmetries seem to be broken. Shells often have a preferential chirality. DNA takes the form of a left-handed helix. How did this dissymmetry arise?

One common answer is that it comes from a unique event that has by chance favored one of the two possible outcomes. Then an autocatalytic process sets in, and the left-handed structure produces other left-handed structures.

Others imagine a “war” between left- and right-handed structures in which one of them has annihilated the other.

These are problems for which we have not yet found a satisfactory answer. To speak of unique events is not satisfactory; we need a more “systematic” explanation.

Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers,
Order Out Of Chaos

All living organisms—from bacteria to civilizations—are open systems, constantly importing and exporting energy, and hence are able to maintain themselves in a state of chemical and thermodynamic disequilibrium.

They (we) are temporarily defying the entropic trend as their (our) growth and evolution bring greater heterogeneity and higher complexity.

Vaclav Smil, Energies

Matter acquires fundamental new properties in far-from-equilibrium conditions.

For example, external fields, such as the gravitational field, can be “perceived” by the system, creating the possibility of pattern selection.

Bénard–Rayleigh convection provides a striking example: Millions of molecules move coherently, forming hexagonal convection cells of a characteristic size.

In this case the instability has a simple mechanical origin: When we heat a liquid layer from below, the lower part of the liquid becomes less dense, and the center of gravity rises.

Beyond a critical point, the system tilts and convection sets in.

Gravity plays an essential role here and leads to new structure even though the liquid may be only a few millimeters thick.

The effect of gravity on such a thin layer would be negligible at equilibrium.

But because of the disequilibrium induced by the temperature difference, macroscopic effects due to gravity become visible even in this thin layer.

Disequilibrium magnifies the effect of gravitation.

Matter perceives differences that would be insignificant at equilibrium.

Such possibilities lead us to think of the simplest organisms, such as bacteria, which are able to react to electric and magnetic fields.

Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers,
Order Out Of Chaos

All Nature’s wildness tells the same story.

The shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort.

Each and all
are the orderly
beauty-making
love-beats
of Nature’s heart.

John Muir