kineticsunderpins

Kineticsunderpins is a neologism that expresses the idea that rates and time scales of processes fundamentally shape the behavior of complex systems across disciplines. It treats kinetics as an organizing principle rather than only a set of chemical equations, and suggests that outcomes in chemistry, biology, engineering, environmental science, and social systems are governed by how quickly processes proceed and how energy and matter flow through networks.

Core ideas include the primacy of rate laws and transport processes over static states, the importance of non-equilibrium dynamics, and the emergence of behavior from interactions between fast and slow processes. Time-scale separation, feedback, and stochastic fluctuations are central, as are modeling methods such as differential equations, stochastic simulations, and kinetic Monte Carlo.

Applications span chemical reactors and catalysis, cellular metabolism and signaling, materials growth and degradation, and environmental processes like pollutant transport and atmospheric chemistry. The framework also extends to social and information dynamics where adoption or spread follows kinetic-like rules.

It complements thermodynamics by explaining how systems evolve toward or away from equilibrium, focusing on dynamical pathways. While not standardized, practitioners use the term to stress that rates and time scales are central determinants of system behavior, though some critique it as a generalization lacking precise scope.