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In Design in Nature by Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane a new theory of nature is mooted, but is the idea stretched beyond its reach?

NEW fundamental laws don’t pop up every day in science. Yet that’s exactly what Adrian Bejan claims to have discovered: a basic principle of nature, overlooked until now, that governs the evolution of everything from river basins to athletic performance and human culture.

Bejan, a mechanical engineer at Duke University in…

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