In an offline conversation about my "open letter", somebody asked me what symmetry breaking was; Here was my answer.
Symmetry breaking is Guerin/Kaufman talk. Something like this: Just before Benard cells form, the fluid is symmetrical horizontally (Kaufman/Guerin talk for "uniform"), although there is a gradient of warmth from low to high. When the gradient reaches a certain intensity, the Benard cell structure is formed and that horizontal uniformity is replaced by upward and downward moving columns of liquid. The original uniformity (aka symmetry) is broken and (on Steve's account) energy now moves faster from the warm plate at the bottom to the cold plate at the top because of that symmetry breaking. I hope I have this right. Since nobody is answering my question about sink vortices being a case of an anti-dissipative structure, let me attempt my own answer. Nick, you old goose. You are really confused. It's an energy gradient that is being defused, not a water gradient. The very inefficiency of the sink vortex for moving water is what makes it into an efficient dissipative structure. n Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/>
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