The fundamental laws of nature do not distinguish between past and future.The equations that describe microscopic processes taking place when an egg is broken can just as well be used to describe the reverse process that would occur if the pieces were to be put back together. Nevertheless, the breaking of an egg, like many processes in nature seem to have a direction in time associated with them. For example, we all age, eggs break, spring turns into summer, but the reverse processes don't seem to occur at all. Since directionality in time does not seem to be contained in the fundamental mechanical equations of Newton or Schrodinger, for example, we must look elsewhere for an explanation of irreversible processes. The explanation must in some way reflect the fact that the properties of systems of large numbers of particles can be very different from the properties of a few isolated particles. "More is different" said Phil Anderson in a famous paper.

The study of matter in bulk is the subject of statistical mechanics in general. The study of irreversible processes, such as those mentioned earlier, is the subject of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, which is the focus of the meeting taking place this week at The Technion.  Topics to be discussed include classical and quantum transport theory, theoretical descriptions of non-equilibrium states, particularly steady states, and the role of chaotic and non-chaotic dynamics for determining the behavior of classical systems and their quantum counterparts.

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