chemistry

John Scales Avery

John Scales Avery is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Scales Avery rather than just read about it. In short: John Scales Avery (May 26, 1933 – January 4, 2024) was an American theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. Since the early 1990s, Avery had been an active world peace activist.

Key takeaways

John Scales Avery belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Scales Avery to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Scales Avery from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Scales Avery (May 26, 1933 – January 4, 2024) was an American theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. Since the early 1990s, Avery had been an active world peace activist. During these years, he was part of a group associated with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1995, this group received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. He was an associate professor in quantum chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution, including human cultural evolution, has its background situated over thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Avery died on January 4, 2024, at the age of 90.

Early life Avery was born in Lebanon on May 26, 1933, to American parents. Avery's parents were both born in the United States, in the state of Michigan, where they studied at the University of Michigan. His father studied medicine while his mother studied bacteriology. After graduation, his parents did research together at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Later, his father did research in a borderline area between physics and medicine with Arthur Holly Compton, discoverer of the "Compton effect", at the University of Chicago. In 1926, his father moved the family to Beirut, where his father worked as a professor of anatomy at the American University of Beirut. The family stayed in Beirut until the start of World War II. It was during these tumultuous years that John Scales Avery was born.

Education 1950 – graduated, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. 1954 – B.Sc., physics, M.I.T 1955 – M.Sc., physics, University of Chicago 1965 – Ph.D., theoretical chemistry, Imperial College, London

Thermodynamics

In his recent 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution (2nd Edition, 2012), Avery combines information theory with thermodynamics to account for the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution. Since the beginning of the formulation of the second law of thermodynamics in the 1860s, which states that the entropy, or disorder, of an isolated system tends to increase with time, there has been a debate as to how this law relates to the "ordering" process of evolution. The apparent paradox between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems, according to Avery, has its resolution "in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources."

Activism

Since 1990, Avery had been the Contact Person for Denmark at the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1995, Avery was part of a group that shared in the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in the 1990s in organizing the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In 1998, Avery was elected to the Danish Peace Commission. From 1988 to 1997, Avery was the Technical Advisor at the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe. In 2004, Avery became the Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy.

Books Avery, John. (2012). Information Theory and Evolution. World Scientific. (2nd Edition) Avery, John. (2005). Science and Society Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine, 2nd Ed. (PDF, 375 pgs.). Copenhagen: H.C. Orsted Institute. Avery, John. (2004). Calculus and Differential Equations – an introductory book. (PDF, 135 pgs.). University of Copenhagen: Pari New Learning Publications. Avery, John. (2002). Space-Age Science and Stone-Age Politics (PDF, 272 pgs.) Danish Peace Academy: Danish Pugwash Group. Avery, John (1997) Progress, Poverty and Population, Frank Cass, London, (1997) Scientific books:

Hyperspherical Harmonics and Generalized Sturmians, by J. Avery, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2000 Hyperspherical Harmonics; Applications in Quantum Theory, by J. Avery, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1989 Creation and Annihilation Operators, by J. Avery, McGraw-Hill, 1976 The Quantum Theory of Atoms, Molecules and Photons, by J. Avery, McGraw-Hill, 1972 As well as more than 150 [www.ki.ku.dk/dokumenter/PDF/Publications-JS-Avery.pdf].

References

External links Biography - Overview John Avery – faculty page, University of Copenhagen John Avery List Publications - Danish Peace Academy www.johnavery.info/ Official Site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Scales Avery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Scales Avery claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Scales Avery before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Scales Avery ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Scales Avery

In research: John Scales Avery appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Scales Avery in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Scales Avery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1933 births, 2024 deaths, 21st-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Scales Avery outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study John Scales Avery in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Scales Avery means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Scales Avery out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Scales Avery in simple terms?

Why does John Scales Avery matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Scales Avery?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Scales Avery.