A man and his equation: the anxiety-plagued nineteenth-century physicist who contributed significantly to our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. Ludwig Boltzmann's grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery bears a cryptic epitaph: S = k log W. This equation was Boltzmann's great discovery, and it contributed significantly to our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. In Anxiety and the Equation, Eric Johnson tells the story of a man and his equation: the anxiety-plagued nineteenth-century physicist who did his most important work as he struggled with mental illness. Johnson explains that “S” in Boltzmann's equation refers to entropy, and that entropy is the central quantity in the second law of thermodynamics. The second law is always on, running in the background of our lives, providing a way to differentiate between past and future. We know that the future will be a state of higher entropy than the past, and we have Boltzmann to thank for discovering the equation that underlies that fundamental trend. Johnson, accessibly and engagingly, reassembles Boltzmann's equation from its various components and presents episodes from Boltzmann's life—beginning at the end, with “Boltzmann Kills Himself” and “Boltzmann Is Buried (Not Once, But Twice).” Johnson explains the second law in simple terms, introduces key concepts through thought experiments, and explores Boltzmann's work. He argues that Boltzmann, diagnosed by his contemporaries as neurasthenic, suffered from an anxiety disorder. He was, says Johnson, a man of reason who suffered from irrational concerns about his work, worrying especially about opposition from the scientific establishment of the day. Johnson's clear and concise explanations will acquaint the nonspecialist reader with such seemingly esoteric concepts as microstates, macrostates, fluctuations, the distribution of energy, log functions, and equilibrium. He describes Boltzmann's relationships with other scientists, including Max Planck and Henri Poincaré, and, finally, imagines “an alternative ending,” in which Boltzmann lived on and died of natural causes.

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Launched in 2013, Frontiers in Physics consists of 18 specialties covering all areas of research in physics. With over 500 published manuscripts, the journal is now indexed in SCIE with the first impact factor coming in 2019. Frontiers in Physics aims to become the largest and most cited open access multidisciplinary physics journal. This eBook collects what the Specialty Chief Editors of the journal believed were the most interesting manuscripts published over the past two years. It is a nice collection, which will offer the reader the chance to have a quick overview of the specialties of the journal and offer a glimpse into the state of the art of physics. We must confess that it has been quite challenging to select only one article per specialty section given the many important manuscripts published by the journal in 2017 and 2018. We invite our reader to have a look at the journal homepage and browse what we have published so far. It includes articles on topics very different from each other, written by both early career scientists and well-known researchers, ranging from the indisputable advance of the field to the more bold. We hope you enjoy reading our first edition of the Frontiers in Physics Editor's Choice eBook! Professor Alex Hansen (Field Chief Editor) and Dr Claudio Bogazzi (Journal Manager)