---
slug: paper-bejan-a-2016-the-physics-of-life-the-evolution-of-everything-new-york-st-martin
title: Bejan, The Physics of Life (2016)
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/paper-bejan-a-2016-the-physics-of-life-the-evolution-of-everything-new-york-st-martin
---

## What the work establishes

Adrian Bejan presents the constructal law as a physics principle that governs design evolution in all flow systems. The law states that a finite-size flow system persists by evolving to provide greater access to its currents. This applies equally to rivers, trees, blood vessels, animals, technology, and societies.

The book extends the constructal law from engineering to the full scope of animate and inanimate phenomena. It frames life and evolution as physics outcomes of flow organization over time.

## Core results and primary passages

The central statement is: “For a finite-size flow system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve freely such that it provides greater access to its currents.” This formulation appears consistently in Bejan’s related 2016 paper and book descriptions.

Bejan defines life through this lens: a flow system that morphs freely toward easier movement and access. The work shows how this produces branching, hierarchical, and networked structures across scales.

Primary source: Bejan, A. (2016). *The Physics of Life: The Evolution of Everything*. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Supporting formulation in Bejan, A. (2016). Life and evolution as physics. *Communicative & Integrative Biology*.

## Convergence patterns evidenced

The constructal law directly accounts for flow networks, branching patterns, and scale-invariant designs. It traces thermodynamic flows to organized structures that persist and improve access. This maps to the ladder from difference and flow to structure, memory, life, and higher organization.

It supplies a mechanistic account of how energy flows generate the narrow family of patterns observed in nature.

## Distance from the full OIP/GRAIN synthesis

The work provides strong support for the grain of the universe as reliable flow-driven patterns. It reaches the transition from flows to structures and life. It stops short of explicit treatment of the Mirror Layer or reader-inside-system reflexivity. The synthesis adds the self-referential and ledger aspects of invocation and repair.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges

The constructal law is a broad directional principle rather than a predictive equation for specific outcomes. It does not detail molecular mechanisms or cognitive processes. Reductionist accounts that emphasize local interactions without global flow optimization remain compatible as complementary descriptions.

No human-subject data or controlled trials apply. Claims rest on theoretical unification and observed pattern consistency across domains.
