The opening page Journal of Chemical & Engineering News 5 Apr 1971 four-page article reprint of American chemical engineer and physical chemist Frederick Rossini's 29 March “Chemical Thermodynamics in the Real World” Priestley Medal Address, wherein he applies chemical thermodynamics to explain freedom and security of people in society. [1] |
“For my talk this evening, I have selected the subject ‘Chemical Thermodynamics in the Real World,’ because it represents an area in which I have worked a great deal and because it relates to present-day problems of our society. I will try to show that thermodynamics is a discipline highly relevant to the real world in which we live and that its fundamental laws may be related to human experience.”
“A simple description of energy is that the energy of a [social] system arises from the binding forces [exchange forces] that hold together the elementary particles—nuclei, ions, atoms, molecules, and macromolecules [people]—constituting the system. The greater the binding forces, the more tightly bound is the system, and the lower is its energy. This corresponds to a state of greater [interpersonal or socioeconomic] security. The smaller the binding forces, the less tightly bound is the system, and the higher is its energy. This corresponds to a system of lesser [interpersonal or socioeconomic] security.”
“This simple example illustrates [the] logical principles [physical chemistry] that find universal application in the physical, biological, and social sciences.”
A depiction of binding affinity contributions—of a small molecule (green) to its target (red) amid solvent water (cyan)—of enthalpy ΔH and entropy ΔS, from American biophysical (chnops-physical) chemist Allen James' 2009 Biophysical Chemistry. [5] The Rossini corollary of this is that the green molecule is akin to a person (human molecule) being moved into or out of various binding sites. |
“The final state of equilibrium is a compromise between the ‘freedom’ term, ΔS°/R, and the ‘security’ term, a – ΔH°/RT. To repeat, the final state of equilibrium, then, is a compromise between two more or less opposing factors: greater freedom or greater entropy, as measure by ΔS°/R; and greater security or lesser energy, as measured by – ΔH°/RT.”
“Many economists and marketing executives would like to know what drives human behavior in the so-called marketplace. Thermodynamics explains what ‘drives’ inanimate behavior, that is, which processes will spontaneously occur and towards what equilibrium conditions they strive. Thus we might apply this theory also to economic behavior of humans. In thermodynamics the two quantities of greatest interest are the energy and the entropy.”