Design in Nature

This article is adapted from the Introduction of Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization, written by Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane. This law sweeps the entire mosaic of nature from inanimate rivers to animate designs, such as vascular tissues, locomotion, and social organization. The constructal law tears down the walls that have separated the disciplines of science by providing a new understanding of what it means to be alive. The constructal law defines life in physics terms, and it covers all live-system phenomena. The author believes that the constructal law also challenges another idea that has become dogma since Darwin—that there is no overarching direction to evolution. The constructal law, by contrast, predicts that evolution should occur because of the tendency of all flow systems to generate better and better designs for the currents that flow through them.