John Scales Avery

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John Scales Avery
Born(1933-05-26)May 26, 1933
Lebanon
DiedJanuary 4, 2024(2024-01-04) (aged 90)

John Scales Avery (May 26, 1933 – January 4, 2024) was an American theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1995, this group received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. He was an Associate Professor in quantum chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution, including human cultural evolution, has its background situated over thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Avery died on January 4, 2024, at the age of 90.[1]

Early life

Avery was born in

Compton effect", at the University of Chicago
. In 1926, his father moved the family to Beirut, where his father worked as a professor of anatomy at the American University of Beirut. The family stayed in Beirut until the start of World War II. It was during these tumultuous years that John Scales Avery was born.

Education

  • 1950 – graduated, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
  • 1954 – B.Sc., physics,
    M.I.T
  • 1955 – M.Sc., physics, University of Chicago
  • 1965 – Ph.D., theoretical chemistry,
    Imperial College, London

Thermodynamics

Main article: Entropy and life

In his recent 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution (2nd Edition, 2012), Avery combines information theory with thermodynamics to account for the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution. Since the beginning of the formulation of the second law of thermodynamics in the 1860s, which states that the entropy, or disorder, of an isolated system tends to increase with time, there has been a debate as to how this law relates to the "ordering" process of evolution. The apparent paradox between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems, according to Avery, has its resolution "in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources."[3]

Activism

John Avery at a Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs

Since 1990, Avery had been the Contact Person for Denmark at the

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1998, Avery was elected to the Danish Peace Commission. From 1988 to 1997, Avery was the Technical Advisor at the World Health Organization
, Regional Office for Europe. In 2004, Avery became the Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy.

Books

Scientific books:

  • Hyperspherical Harmonics and Generalized Sturmians, by J. Avery, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2000
  • Hyperspherical Harmonics; Applications in Quantum Theory, by J. Avery, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1989
  • Creation and Annihilation Operators, by J. Avery, McGraw-Hill, 1976
  • The Quantum Theory of Atoms, Molecules and Photons, by J. Avery, McGraw-Hill, 1972

As well as more than 150 [www.ki.ku.dk/dokumenter/PDF/Publications-JS-Avery.pdf].

References

  1. ^ John Scales Avery, One of the Greatest Intellectuals of Our Time Passes Away
  2. ^ Fredsaktivist John Scales Avery er død (in Danish)
  3. ISBN 981-238-399-9
    . (2nd Edition, 2012)

External links
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