Howard T. Odum’s contribution to the laws of energy

H.T. Odum’s life-long search for the energy basis of general systems principles culminated in proposals for three new energy laws, which if accepted, would double the number currently recognized by engineers and scientists. I review the evolution of his thinking on proposals for a 4th (self-organization for maximum empower), 5th (energy transformation hierarchy) and 6th (coupling of biogeochemical cycles to energy transformation hierarchies) law of energy. During his lifetime investigation of ecological systems, H.T. Odum sought to generalize his and other’s observations about how ecosystems selected their network designs to match their structure and level of activity to the availabilities of energy and resource materials, with the hope that the general principles discovered would accelerate understanding of how these and systems of all kind work. During his quest, H.T. refined Alfred J. Lotka’s (1922a) maximum power principle to present it as the 4th Law of Energy and proposed two of his own as the 5th and 6th Laws of Energy. H.T. also clarified the meaning, ubiquity, and implications of the first and second energy laws to many of his students and associates, often stating, “The first law of energy states that the quantity of energy is conserved, while the second law states that the quality of energy, its ability to do work, is not.”