Diversity through Freedom#

A new publication by Adrian Bejan#

Read the new publication by Adrian Bejan MAE, J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Duke University, and member of the Physics Section of Academia Europaea since 2013.

Diversity is everywhere. What is available in plain view tends to be overlooked. The first half of the book recounts the discovery and testing of the physics principle of natural diversity. The second half is about unnatural (enforced) diversity, its impact on society and future.

The physics of diversity unites ‘dissimilar’ phenomena: urban life, animal movement, rhythm, convergent with divergent evolution, the urge to freedom, university rankings, merit, hierarchy, diversity of opinions, economies of scale, natural diversity with unnatural diversity.

A new idea comes from an individual, not from a collective, and certainly not from the collectivization of research in universities and government funding. The good idea spreads naturally because it is useful to many. It attracts a crowd of all kinds: volunteers. The good idea is like a beautiful flower that attracts the bees, painters, photographers, and people in love. This is the phenomenon of ‘natural’ diversity.

The group attracted by the good idea is bigger, more visible, louder, and better connected than the creator. Outsiders, future joiners get the impression that the idea came from the ‘collective’, not from the single visionary. That impression is false. Policies based on it are doomed because they deny reality and nature.

Ask why this is useful to know. By understanding the physics principles that underlie natural phenomena, people can position themselves and their society better in nature. They can put the natural phenomena at their service and avoid fighting losing battles. Science is about us, for us to use to our advantage, or to dismiss at our peril.

ISBN: 978-3-032-05264-3
Publication date: March 2026
Publisher: Springer Nature

About Adrian Bejan#

Adrian Bejan received his B..S. (1971, Honors Course), M.S. (1972, Honors Course), and Ph.D. (1975) degrees in mechanical engineering, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a Fellow of the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, at the University of California, Berkeley (1976-1978). He is J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University (1984-).

Professor Bejan’s research covers a wide range of topics in engineering: thermodynamics, natural convection, heat and mass transfer, convection in porous media, and the Constructal Law of design and evolution in nature.