If you want to know what's happening in the world, follow the heat. Why can't your coffee "steal" heat from the air to stay piping hot? Why can't Detroit make a car that's 100 percent efficient? Why can't some genius make a perpetual motion machine? The answers lie in the field of thermodynamics, the study of heat, which turns out to be the key to an astonishing number of scientific puzzles, including why time inexorably runs in only one direction.          In Warmth Disperses and Time Passes: The History of Heat , physics professor Hans Christian von Baeyer tells the story of heat through the lives of the scientists who discovered it. With his trademark elegant prose, eye for lively detail, and gift for lucid explanation, Professor von Baeyer turns the contemplation of a cooling coffee cup into a beguiling portrait of the birth of a science with relevance to almost every aspect of our lives. Warmth Disperses and Time Passes deals with, among other things, "Maxwell's Demon," a metaphorical device invented by James Clerk Maxwell a century and a half ago in an attempt to expose flaws in the second law of thermodynamics. This imaginary demon would sit between two flasks of air and allow only warm air molecules to enter the warmer flask. This would cause heat to flow uphill--a death knell for the second law if it were possible. Only it wasn't; it was the death knell for the demon instead. Successive "improved" demons were invented by later physicists, but all have subsequently been killed. The realization that a live demon is impossible has served to further strengthen the second law. Hans von Baeyer is almost as much historian as scientist. As he walks us through the evolution of scientific understanding of thermodynamics, he stops to dwell on the intellectual and societal framework that allowed the physicists of the time to make their respective scientific leaps. This blend of science and history, combined with von Baeyer's journalistic approach, creates a book that is both exceedingly accessible and surprisingly illuminating. --Eric Warner "Hans von Baeyer's writing style is so compelling that it would induce even the most scientifically naïve reader to care about the laws of thermodynamics."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "Professor von Baeyer is a prime candidate for best wordsmith among popularizers of physics, composing prose that is elegant, economical and, above all, civilized."--Physics Today "Hans von Baeyer uses common sense and familiar observations as a tool for exploring deep scientific principles."--Library Journal, Best Sci-Tech Books of 1998 "Hans Christian von Baeyer has published a highly readable, highly humanized account of the second law of thermodynamics. He gives what could be an abstract and difficult discussion a profoundly human tone."--The Boston Globe If you want to know what's happening in the world, follow the heat. Why can't your coffee "steal" heat from the air to stay piping hot? Why can't Detroit make a car that's 100 percent efficient? Why can't some genius make a perpetual motion machine? The answers lie in the field of thermodynamics, the study of heat, which turns out to be the key to an astonishing number of scientific puzzles, including why time inexorably runs in only one direction. In Warmth Disperses and Time Passes: The History of Heat , physics professor Hans Christian von Baeyer tells the story of heat through the lives of the scientists who discovered it. With his trademark elegant prose, eye for lively detail, and gift for lucid explanation, Professor von Baeyer turns the contemplation of a cooling coffee cup into a beguiling portrait of the birth of a science with relevance to almost every aspect of our lives. If you want to know what's happening in the world, follow the heat. Why can't your coffee "steal" heat from the air to stay piping hot? Why can't Detroit make a car that's 100 percent efficient? Why can't some genius make a perpetual motion machine? The answers lie in the field of thermodynamics, the study of heat, which turns out to be the key to an astonishing number of scientific puzzles, including why time inexorably runs in only one direction. In Warmth Disperses and Time Passes: The History of Heat, physics professor Hans Christian von Baeyer tells the story of heat through the lives of the scientists who discovered it. With his trademark elegant prose, eye for lively detail, and gift for lucid explanation, Professor von Baeyer turns the contemplation of a cooling coffee cup into a beguiling portrait of the birth of a science with relevance to almost every aspect of our lives. Hans Christian von Baeyer is Chancellor Professor of Physics at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and their two daughters. He is the recipient of the Science Journalism Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Magazine Award. His previous books include The Fermi S