Evolution of Matter and Energy on a Cosmic and Planetary Scale

My intention in this book is to describe in simple language, using a minimum of mathematics but a maximum of numerical values, the most important developments of science dealing with matter and energy on cosmic and global scales. In the conventional literature all of these findings are distributed among books and journals on physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, biology, energy, engineering, and the environmental sciences. The main purpose here is to attempt to give a unified description of Nature from the elementary particles to the Universe as a whole. This is used as a basis for analysing the future development of mankind. The future evolution of the Universe, galaxies, stars, and planets gives some hope for the destiny of mankind. The problem of matter and energy flow on the Earth appears soluble even for the distant future. There seems to be no reason why a long period of human development on this planet should not be possible. The book has been prepared based on my lectures at the Warsaw University from 1959 to 1968 and during the 15 years 1969-1983 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) in Zurich and at the University of Zurich. I wish to give my sincere thanks to the Swiss Federal Institute for Reactor Research at Wurenlingen for their constant support. I am especially grateful to Mrs. Christine Stratton for setting up the English text and to Mr. R.W. Stratton and LG. McKinley for their helpful criticisms and remarks.

1 Matter and Energy. The Interplay of Elementary Particles and Elementary Forces.- 1.1 An Attempt to Describe the Natural World Using the Smallest Number of Elementary Phenomena.- 1.2 General Foundations of the Physical Sciences.- 1.2.1 Some principles.- 1.2.2 Some properties of the elementary phenomena are governed by very exact and strong laws of conservation.- 1.2.3 Prohibitions.- 1.3 Elementary Forces and Particles.- 1.3.1 Elementary forces.- 1.3.2 Elementary particles.- 1.4 Elementary Particles.- 1.4.1 “Bricks” and “mortar“.- 1.4.2 Creation of the elementary particles.- 1.4.3 “Life” and “death” of elementary particles.- 1.5 The Existence of Atomic Nuclei Is Due to the Forces of Attraction Between Their Nucleons.- 1.5.1 The weak force limits the number of stable hadrons.- 1.5.2 Strong force binds the nucleons together.- 1.5.3 Binding energy of a nucleon.- 1.6 Matter and Free Energy ― The Intimate Connection.- 1.7 What Are the Conclusions for the Future Development of Mankind?.- 2 The Universe: How Is It Observed Here and Now? Its Past and Possible Future.- 2.1 What Is the Universe?.- 2.1.1 A definition of the Universe.- 2.1.2 Beginning of the Universe.- 2.2 Expansion of the Universe.- 2.2.1 The red shift.- 2.2.2 The five eras of the Universe.- 2.3 What Is Known About the Universe Today?.- 2.3.1 The average composition of the Universe.- 2.3.2 Chemical composition of cosmic matter.- 2.3.3 Composition of photons.- 2.4 The Universe as a Whole.- 2.5 The Future of the Universe.- 2.6 What Conclusions Can Be Drawn for the Future Development of Mankind?.- 3 The Origin and Nuclear Evolution of Matter.- 3.1 The Creation of the Elementary Particles in the Very Early Universe.- 3.1.1 Unknown phase: Era of superunified force (Planckian Era or Very Hot Era).- 3.1.2 Era of grand unified force (Hot Era).- 3.1.3 Era of unified force (Lukewarm Era).- 3.1.4 Cold Era and Very Cold Era.- 3.2 Evolution of the Elementary Particles. A Very Rapid Development in the First Seconds of the Universe.- 3.2.1 Beginning of the Cold Era: Evolution in the “Hadron Epoch”.- 3.2.2 Production of hydrogen, deuterium, and helium: The Universe a few seconds old; Lepton Epoch.- 3.2.3 The Photon Epoch, from the first minute to the first million years..- 3.3 The Beginning of the Present Very Cold Era: The “Stars Era”. The Evolution of Galaxies, Stars, and Life.- 3.3.1 The largest of the cosmic structures: The development of galaxies.- 3.3.2 The evolution of stars; the nuclear and gravitational reactors.- 3.3.3 The protostar evolves from diffuse matter.- 3.3.4 The longest living stars, those of the Main Sequence.- 3.3.5 Red Giants: The cold stars with the hot interiors.- 3.3.6 Evolution towards hot dense stars.- 3.3.7 Explosion of a supernova: The most spectacular event in a galaxy.- 3.3.8 Extremely dense stars: Neutron stars (pulsars) and black holes.- 3.4 The Burning of Hydrogen ― Nucleosynthesis in the Stars.- 3.4.1 Deuterium: The fuel of protostars.- 3.4.2 The slow burning of hydrogen.- 3.4.3 The burning of hydrogen in a catalytic cycle assisted by carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.- 3.5 Helium also Burns, but under More Extreme Conditions.- 3.5.1 Production of carbon from the burning of helium.- 3.5.2 A very vital step: The production of oxygen.- 3.6 Carbon, Oxygen, and Other Elements of Medium Mass Burn in a Flash..- 3.6.1 Energy production and energy required for nucleosynthesis.- 3.6.2 Iron, the nuclear ash.- 3.7 The Systhesis of Heavy Elements: The Need for an External Energy Source.- 3.7.1 How can uranium be synthesised?.- 3.7.2 The “s-process”, the slow-process of neutron capture.- 3.7.3 The “r-process”, the rapid-process of neutron capture.- 3.8 Cosmic Rays ― A Strange Form of Matter.- 3.9 What Are the Conclusions for the Future of Mankind?.- 4 Chemical Evolution and the Evolution of Life: The Cosmic Phenomena.- 4.1 Chemical Evolution: Another Phase in the Evolution of Matter.- 4.1.1 Special case of the electromagnetic force: The chemical force.- 4.1.2 The actors in the chemical play.- 4.2 Chemical Synthesis Occurs in Cosmic Space.- 4.2.1 Interstellar gas contains very many, often very complex compounds.- 4.2.2 Some of the interstellar molecules exist in solid form.- 4.2.3 Comets: Rare and strange, but formidable, chemical reactors.- 4.2.4 Meteorites often consist of very “sophisticated” chemical compounds.- 4.2.5 “Organic molecules” on the Moon and planets.- 4.3 The Origin of the Planets.- 4.3.1 Have the planets been formed “by chance”?.- 4.3.2 The protoplanet, the first stage of evolution.- 4.3.3 The chemical evolution of the Earth: A complex and dramatic development.- 4.3.4 All stable elements present in the Universe exist on Earth.- 4.3.5 The history of the Earth has been influenced by the movement of the continents.- 4.3.6 The first phases of chemical evolution were driven by different energy sources and were influenced by a number of factors.- 4.4 Synthesis of Complex Molecules on the Primitive Earth.- 4.4.1 The primitive atmosphere includes mostly molecules containing hydrogen.- 4.4.2 The amino acids; their ease of synthesis.- 4.4.3 How were the large molecules, the polymers, produced?.- 4.5 What Is Life? The Need for a General Definition.- 4.5.1 Could life have originated spontaneously?.- 4.5.2 The physical aspect of life.- 4.5.3 What kind of elementary forces can play the role of energy carriers for living systems?.- 4.5.4 What kind of elementary particles can play the role of carriers of life?.- 4.6 The Chemical Elements, Particularly the Light Elements, Are the Carriers of Life.- 4.6.1 Why are the light elements best fitted for this role?.- 4.6.2 Why is hydrogen oxide ― water ― the unique medium for living organisms?.- 4.6.3 The source of free energy for life: The stars of the Main Sequence..- 4.6.4 The chemical composition of the living organism is similar to the chemical composition of the Universe.- 4.6.5 Life is only possible in a Universe having the characteristics of our type of Universe.- 4.7 What Can We Hope to Know About the Spontaneous Formation of Terrestrial Life?.- 4.7.1 The problem: The uniqueness of life in our present state of knowledge.- 4.7.2 The protobionts: The first living structures.- 4.7.3 The evolution of the living being occurred at the switch-over point from one energy source to the next.- 4.8 Evolution of Living Beings.- 4.8.1 Genetic evolution.- 4.8.2 The evolution of Man.- 4.8.3 The evolution of the brain.- 4.9 What Are the Conclusions for the Future of Mankind?.- 5 The Eternal Cycle of Matter on the Earth.- 5.1 Matter on This Planet Is Almost Indestructible.- 5.1.1 How stable is terrestrial matter?.- 5.1.2 Terrestrial matter is isolated by the gravitational field; the amount of matter is constant.- 5.1.3 Division of the Earth into five “spheres”.- 5.2 The Gaseous Sphere Acts in the Exchange Between the Other Spheres.- 5.2.1 The main components of the atmosphere.- 5.2.2 The most active component, oxygen, a product of the biosphere.- 5.2.3 Ozone: Modified oxygen which acts as a shield for the biosphere.- 5.2.4 The carbon cycle, a chain directly related to the flow of energy in the biosphere and technosphere.- 5.2.5 The “inert” nitrogen cycle, which controls the activity of the biosphere.- 5.2.6 The micro-components of the atmosphere, the troublesome “details”.- 5.2.7 Dust particles, a troublesome constituent of the atmosphere.- 5.3 The Hydrosphere ― A Crucial Factor in the Existence of the Biosphere.- 5.3.1 The cycling of water, the largest terrestrial material cycle.- 5.3.2 Quality of water, quality of life.- 5.3.3 Man’s demand for water is gigantic.- 5.3.4 Drinking water, where purity counts.- 5.3.5 The erosion of the planetary surface.- 5.4 The Solid Earth, the Litosphere.- 5.4.1 The main components of the Earth’s crust.- 5.4.2 The Earth’s crust, the main source of materials for our civilisation.- 5.4.3 Metals “prepared” by Nature, the most widely used.- 5.5 Ordered Matter and Entropy.- 5.5.1 Concentration means increase of order and decrease of entropy.- 5.5.2 Impact of substances in very small amounts: Poisons.- 5.5.3 Material dissipation and waste formation increases entropy.- 5.6 What Are the Conclusions for Mankind’s Future Development?.- 6 The Flow of Energy on the Earth.- 6.1 The Source of Free Energy on the Earth.- 6.1.1 The quality of energy: The ordered and disordered forms.- 6.1.2 The elementary forms of energy.- 6.1.3 How large is flux of energy?.- 6.2 The Energy Sources on the Earth.- 6.2.1. Solar energy ― The most important source.- 6.2.2 Spectrum and albedo of solar light.- 6.3 Solar Energy and Climate.- 6.3.1 The solar energy flux is not constant.- 6.3.2 Solar energy is transformed into numerous forms and types of energy.- 6.3.3 The past and future of the terrestrial climate.- 6.3.4 The local climate depends on continental drift.- 6.4 Non-solar Terrestrial Energy Sources.- 6.4.1 Other non-solar flows of energy play a small but not insignificant role.- 6.4.2 The importance of the amount of stored energy.- 6.5 How Much Energy Does Man Need?.- 6.5.1 Does man need energy at all?.- 6.5.2 The sources of energy are changeable.- 6.6 The Indirect Use of Solar Energy.- 6.6.1 The biosphere as Man’s energy source for technology.- 6.6.2 Transformation of solar into kinetic energy: Wind.- 6.6.3 Transformed solar energy: The kinetic energy of falling water.- 6.6.4 The “insignificant” form of solar energy: The heat of the oceans.- 6.6.5 The best forms of stored solar energy: Oil and coal.- 6.7 The Direct Technological Use of Solar Energy.- 6.7.1 The simplest way: Space heating.- 6.7.2 Solar energy converted into electricity on the Earth“s surface.- 6.7.3 The extraterrestrial conversion of solar into electrical energy.- 6.8 Technological Use of Non-solar (Nuclear) Energy.- 6.8.1 The heaviest elements: The gift of the supernova.- 6.8.2 Geothermal energy results from the nuclear decay of radionuclides.- 6.8.3 The fission of the heavy nuclides is one of the most abundant terrestrial energy sources.- 6.8.4 Fusion: The second coming of nuclear energy.- 6.9 Are There Other Sources of Energy?.- 6.10 Energy Production as a Source of Dangerous Waste and Environmental Problems.- 6.10.1 Energy production and nonradioactive waste materials.- 6.10.2 Radioactive waste from nuclear energy.- 6.10.3 Are fission reactors really dangerous?.- 6.10.4 Radioactive waste and its management.- 6.10.5 Fusion: The controlled thermonuclear reactor ― Is this the “clean” solution?.- 6.10.6 Thermal waste, the local and global problem.- 6.10.7 Surface waste in the production of energy.- 6.11 The Economics of Energy Production.- 6.11.1 The energy cost of energy.- 6.11.2 What is the price of energy?.- 6.12 What Are the Conclusions for the Future Development of Mankind?.- 7 The Biosphere: The Coupling of Matter and the Flow of Free Energy.- 7.1 The Biosphere: The Coupling of Matter and the Flow of Free Energy.- 7.2 The Terrestrial Biosphere: Mass and Productivity.- 7.2.1 The greatest component of the biosphere is, in terms of mass, in the form of trees.- 7.2.2 The biosphere’s productivity does not match its pattern of distribution.- 7.2.3 The surprisingly simple chemical composition of the biosphere.- 7.3 The Magnitude of the Flow of Energy in the Biomass.- 7.3.1 The direct net flux of energy in the biosphere is some 92 TW.- 7.3.2 The total solar energy flux consumed by the biosphere.- 7.3.3 The biosphere in the past.- 7.3.4 The green plant is not only a synthesiser, it is also a water vapouriser.- 7.4 The Biosphere as a Source of Food for Mankind.- 7.4.1 How much free energy in the form of food does Man need?.- 7.4.2 Man requires numerous structural materials for his body.- 7.4.3 The winning of food from the biosphere.- 7.5 Agriculture, Source of Food for Humans.- 7.5.1 Agricultural requirements of the average man.- 7.5.2 Human food quality.- 7.6 Constraints on the Further Development of Agricultural Production.- 7.6.1 Can the area under cultivation be increased?.- 7.6.2 Can agricultural production be doubled over the next 50 years?.- 7.7 The Ocean. A Source of Human Food?.- 7.7.1 How productive is the ocean?.- 7.7.2 The ocean is an important source of proteins.- 7.8 Food Production Needs a Large Energy Input.- 7.8.1 Solar and technological energy input to agriculture.- 7.8.2 Single-Cell protein ― A new food source.- 7.9 The Biosphere Is More than a Source of Food.- 7.10 What Conclusions Can Be Drawn for Mankind’s Future Development?.- 8 Is the Future Development of Mankind on This Planet Possible?.- 8.1 Is It Possible to Consider the Future?.- 8.2 The Main Problem: The Increase of the World Population.- 8.2.1 Is it wrong to consider mankind as part of the biosphere?.- 8.2.2 The growth of world population in the past.- 8.2.3 The reference case used in this chapter ― A stable world population of 8 billion.- 8.3 Problem No. 2: A Place on the Earth for Everyone.- 8.3.1 How much space will each inhabitant have in the future?.- 8.3.2 Organisation of space and transport: The energy lost.- 8.4 Problem No. 3: Food for Everyone.- 8.5 Problem No. 4: Material Resources for Everyone.- 8.5.1 Maximum recycling and minimum use.- 8.5.2 Material recycling and energy.- 8.6 The Ultimate Problem for the Future of Mankind: The Flow of Free Energy.- 8.6.1 Why energy?.- 8.6.2 The prognosis for energy consumption.- 8.6.3 How much energy is needed to produce the technological energy used by Man?.- 8.6.4 The future source of free energy.- 8.6.5 Not only the free energy sources are important but also the sinks!.- 8.7 The Future Climate of This Planet.- 8.7.1 Will the terrestrial climate remain favourable?.- 8.7.2 The possibility of controlling the terrestrial climate.- 8.8 The Quality of Life.- 8.9 What Conclusions Can Be Drawn Concerning the Future Development of Mankind?.- 9 The Distant Future of Mankind ― Terrestrial or Cosmic?.- 9.1 The Natural Constants and the Future of the Universe.- 9.1.1 The very far future.- 9.1.2 How stable are the natural laws and constants?.- 9.2 The Future Development of the Universe.- 9.3 The Future of the Galaxy and the Sun.- 9.3.1 The stability of galaxies.- 9.3.2 How stable is the cosmic neighbourhood of the Solar system?.- 9.3.3 How stable, how predictable is the Sun?.- 9.4 The Future of the Planet Earth.- 9.4.1 The stability of the planet.- 9.4.2 The fall of small cosmic objects and earthquakes.- 9.4.3 The future terrestrial climate.- 9.5 The Possibilities for Mankind: Self-destruction, Self-isolation, Expansion.- 9.6 Human Colonies in Space ― Possibility or Nonsense?.- 9.7 The Existence of Other Planetary Systems with Intelligent Life.- 9.7.1 How many stars have planetary systems?.- 9.7.2 How many planets having intelligent life could exist?.- 9.8 The Extraterrestrial Exchange of Information.- 9.9 Summary of the Limits of World Population Growth.- 9.10 Human Galactic Expansion and the Drake Limit.- 9.10.1 The expansion velocity.- 9.10.2 The energy need for cosmic journeys.- 9.11 Is It Really Impossible to Colonise the Galaxies?.- 9.12 The Very Distant Future; Mankind on This Planet.- 9.13 What Are the Conclusions Concerning the Distant Future of Mankind?.