If someone asked you “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would be most ...

In 1867, the Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell, published a thought experiment showing how to extract heat from a container of gas. Maxwell dreamt up a container divided in half by a wall with a ...

Hot stuff: The experimental set-up with the trapped calcium. (Courtesy: Johannes Roßnagel) Physicists in Germany have taken mechanical miniaturization to the ultimate limit by producing a heat ...

Physicists have built a quantum gas that behaves nothing like the substances we are used to, and that is exactly why it is causing such excitement. Instead of slowing down when particles collide, this ...

A study published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) details a "Gambling Carnot Engine" that researchers report can attain 100% efficiency while also improving power generation. Subscribe to our ...

Elementary classical thermodynamics, applications of the first law and the second laws of thermodynamics to power and refrigeration cycles, mixtures and solutions, thermodynamic relations, chemical ...

As with many branches of physics and engineering, a common point of debate and research is: Under what conditions do the classical laws and theories of physics break down and quantum theories are ...

A graduate course in classical and statistical thermodynamics. The following topics in classical thermodynamics will be covered: The laws of thermodynamics; conditions for equilibrium Solutions Excess ...

Researchers have encountered a partial violation of the second law of thermodynamics in a quantum system known as Hofstadter lattice. This partial violation has no place within the framework of ...