News tagged with thermodynamics
Scientists design solar cells that exceed the conventional light-trapping limit
(PhysOrg.com) -- The best performing solar cells are those that are thick enough to absorb light from the entire solar spectrum, while the cheapest solar cells are thin ones, since they require less, and potentially ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
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Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox
(PhysOrg.com) -- Entropy can decrease, according to a new proposal - but the process would destroy any evidence of its existence, and erase any memory an observer might have of it. It sounds like the plot ...
Aug 27, 2009 |
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Evidence of a new phase in liquid hydrogen
(PhysOrg.com) -- We like to think that we’ve got hydrogen, one of the most basic of elements, figured out. However, hydrogen can still surprise, especially once scientists start probing its properties on the ...
Feb 25, 2010 |
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Second Law of Thermodynamics May Explain Economic Evolution
(PhysOrg.com) -- Terms such as the "invisible hand," laissez-faire policy, and free-market principles suggest that economic growth and decline in capitalist societies seem to be somehow self-regulated. Now, ...
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Could Maxwell's Demon Exist in Nanoscale Systems?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Maxwell’s demon may be making a comeback. Physicists know that the demon, an imaginary creature that decreases the entropy of a system, cannot exist in macroscopic systems due to the energy ...
Jun 24, 2009 |
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Rice's 'quantum critical' theory gets experimental boost
New evidence this week supports a theory developed five years ago at Rice University to explain the electrical properties of several classes of materials -- including unconventional superconductors -- that ...
Jan 11, 2012 |
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Mathematical model explains marital breakups
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people know love takes work, and effort is needed to sustain a happy relationship over the long term, but now a mathematician in Spain has for the first time explained it mathematically ...
May 17, 2010 |
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Maxwell's demon demonstration turns information into energy
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Japan are the first to have succeeded in converting information into free energy in an experiment that verifies the "Maxwell demon" thought experiment devised in 1867.
Nov 15, 2010 |
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Could thermodynamic fluctuations have led to the origins of life?
In the field of abiogenesis, scientists are currently investigating several ways in which life could have arisen from non-living matter. Generally, any theory of abiogenesis should account for two important ...
Aug 16, 2010 |
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Tiny generators turn waste heat into power
The second law of thermodynamics is a big hit with the beret-wearing college crowd because of its implicit existential crunch. The tendency of a closed systems to become increasingly disordered if no energy is added or removed ...
Sep 28, 2010 |
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Achieving optimal efficiencies for nanoengines
(PhysOrg.com) -- "There's a lot of recent interest in understanding the functioning and optimal performance of small systems," Katja Lindenberg tells PhysOrg.com. Lindenberg is a scientist in the Department of Chemistry and Bi ...
Apr 29, 2009 |
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From seawater to freshwater with a nanotechnology filter
In this month's Physics World, Jason Reese, Weir Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Strathclyde, describes the role that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could play in the desalination of wat ...
Jun 01, 2011 |
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Nanometer-scale layers between materials have both solid and liquid characteristics
Researchers at the Technion have discovered the nature of nanometer-thick layers between different materials and found that they have both solid and liquid properties. By doing so, the researchers made a crucial ...
May 23, 2011 |
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Entropyman.org Explains Why Pots 'Unbreak' on the Nanoscale (Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- A man lifts his hand in the air, and broken pieces of ceramic lying on the sidewalk spring up into his hand, coming together to form a flower pot. He lifts his hands again, and more broken ...
Feb 16, 2009 |
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On the way to hydrogen storage?
(PhysOrg.com) -- The car of the future could be propelled by a fuel cell powered with hydrogen. But what will the fuel tank look like? Hydrogen gas is not only explosive but also very space-consuming. Storage ...
Apr 19, 2011 |
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