Four Laws That Drive The Universe By Peter Atkins -.pdf- -

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of energy conservation, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another. This fundamental principle was first formulated in the mid-19th century by Julius Robert Mayer and Hermann von Helmholtz, who recognized that energy is a conserved quantity that remains constant over time. Atkins explains that this law is a direct consequence of the uniformity of time, which implies that the laws of physics are the same at all times.

The entropy of an isolated system increases over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. Four Laws That Drive The Universe By Peter Atkins -.PDF-