From: g.scholten@nospam.gmx.de   
      
   Lawrence Crowell  wrote:   
      
   > I think Latham might be partially right if the universe were static.   
      
   No, even with the universe being static, his statement would still be   
   wrong. Let's imagine a static universe (e.g. one for which General   
   Relativity turns out to break down on large scales). Imagine that in the   
   initial state, there are big clouds of hydrogen and helium, with the H   
   and He atoms being nearly equally distributed.   
      
   Then let star formation start. Parts of the clouds collaps due to their   
   own gravity and form stars. In the centres of the stars, fusion   
   processes start that make the stars emit light. This emitted light   
   increases the energy density of the electromagnetic radiation field, and   
   by this, the temperature of that field (since there is no expansion of   
   the universe that could cool down the radiation field by red-shifting).   
      
   So, the temperature of the radiation field is increasing, and after some   
   billions of years, it approaches the order of the temperature on the   
   surfaces of the stars. This forces the stars to grow, since they need a   
   bigger surface to emit the energy produced by the fusion processes as   
   light. Finally, the stars grow that much that they dissolve.   
      
   The matter distribution is then in some way similar to the initial   
   state: big clouds with nearly equally distributed atoms. However, there   
   are two crucial differences to the initial state: on the one hand, the   
   temperature is much higher now (indicating a heat death!), and on the   
   other hand, the element distribution is different, the portion of   
   hydrogen has decreased whereas the portion of heavy elements, produced   
   by the fusion processes in the stars, has increased.   
      
   So, this final state has much more entropy than the initial state,   
   making a re-start of star formation impossible. In other words: in the   
   initial state, there was much energy accumulated as chemical energy (low   
   entropy) in the hydrogen atoms, and by the stars fusing hydrogen to   
   helium and heavier elements, that chemical energy has been transformed   
   to heat (high entropy).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)