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Token-space geometry, organoid intelligence, constructor theory, active inference frontiers — where silicon and biology begin to share the same manifold. Explore the lattice → [M=T/C](/tag/m-t-c/) • [Theory](/tag/atom-theory/) • [Neurodiversity](/tag/neurodiversity/)

Spontaneous Reactions: When ΔG Goes Negative

Spontaneous Reactions: When ΔG Goes Negative

The word "spontaneous" misleads everyone. In everyday language, spontaneous means sudden, impulsive, happening immediately. A spontaneous decision. A spontaneous combustion. In thermodynamics, spontaneous means something precise and different: thermodynamically favorable. A spontaneous reaction is one where ΔG < 0. That's it. No claim about speed, no

What Is Delta G? The Sign That Decides Everything

What Is Delta G? The Sign That Decides Everything

In chemistry, most numbers are just numbers. Concentrations. Temperatures. Rate constants. They describe the system but don't tell you what happens next. Delta G is different. The sign of ΔG decides what happens. Negative: reaction proceeds. Positive: reaction doesn't proceed. Zero: equilibrium. No other quantity has

The Gibbs Free Energy Formula: ΔG = ΔH - TΔS

The Gibbs Free Energy Formula: ΔG = ΔH - TΔS

Three letters, one equation, the universe's decision rule. ΔG = ΔH - TΔS Every chemist knows this formula. Most memorize it for exams and forget the meaning. But this equation encodes the competition between energy and entropy, with temperature as referee. Understanding it—really understanding it—means understanding why

Gibbs Free Energy: The Universe's Decision Function

Gibbs Free Energy: The Universe's Decision Function

In the 1870s, Josiah Willard Gibbs was a professor at Yale with no salary. He taught for free, published in obscure journals, and created the theoretical framework that would become the foundation of chemistry, materials science, and biochemistry. His key insight: reactions don't just want to minimize energy.

ATP and Free Energy: Biology's Energy Currency

ATP and Free Energy: Biology's Energy Currency

Every second, your body hydrolyzes 10^21 ATP molecules. By day's end, you've turned over roughly your body weight in ATP. This single molecule powers everything—muscle contraction, nerve impulses, protein synthesis, cell division. ATP isn't the most energy-rich molecule. It's not

Chemical Equilibrium: Where ΔG Equals Zero

Chemical Equilibrium: Where ΔG Equals Zero

Every reaction has a destination. Not where all reactants become products, and not where nothing happens. The destination is equilibrium—the point where forward and reverse reactions balance perfectly. At equilibrium, ΔG = 0. The system has found its free energy minimum. No driving force remains in either direction. This isn&

Temperature's Hidden Power: The Gibbs-Helmholtz Equation

Temperature's Hidden Power: The Gibbs-Helmholtz Equation

Temperature appears in ΔG = ΔH - TΔS as a simple multiplier. But its influence is deeper than that. The Gibbs-Helmholtz equation reveals how temperature changes shift the free energy landscape. It shows why reactions that are non-spontaneous at one temperature become spontaneous at another. And it connects the temperature derivative