Second Law of Thermodynamics

The second law is a generalization, it's talking about the overall tendency. Like if you throw some dice the overall tendency is for them to come up 7 about 6 times more often than 2. That doesn't mean you can't get 2 several times in a row though. With me so far?Inside this overall tendency toward dissipation of energy, structures can still develop that trap the energy and use it to improve themselves. This isn't just theory either, Brad McFall got me looking into dissipative structures and I found a nice example in "Benard cells", these are self-organizing structures that develop in fluids trapped between two planes of different temperatures. The overall tendency is still for the energy to dissipate, but as long as the supply holds out the "cells" use the energy to advance in complexity rather than fall apart.Here's the deep version, hope it makes you trip out in a pleasant way EvC Forum: How big is our Galaxy.

Just couldn't resist could you?