Entropy and Entropy Generation: Fundamentals and Applications

Entropy and entropy generation play essential roles in the understanding of many diverse phenomena ranging from cosmology to biology. Their importance is manifest in areas of immediate practical interest such as the provision of global energy as well as in others of a more fundamental flavour such as the source of order and complexity in nature. They also form the basis of most modern formulations of both equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Today much progress is being made in the understanding of entropy and entropy generation in both fundamental aspects and application to concrete problems.