Almost exactly 200 years ago, French physicist Sadi Carnot determined the maximum efficiency of heat engines. The Carnot ...

For two centuries, students have learned that heat flows and engines work according to rigid limits that no machine can beat.

Quantum thermodynamics explores the fundamental principles governing energy conversion at the smallest scales, where quantum effects such as coherence and entanglement significantly influence the ...

For more than a century, thermodynamics has described how heat flows and engines run, while quantum mechanics has ruled the ...

Finite-time thermodynamics (FTT) is an advanced field that addresses the inherent irreversibilities associated with real-world energy conversion processes. Unlike classical thermodynamics which ...

Just how small can you make an engine? Two researchers from the University of Stuttgart and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Valentin Blickle and Clemens Bechinger, successfully ...

Physicists have created a device that has experimentally exceeded the conventional second law of thermodynamics. The device is an information engine, which converts information into work, and it is ...

The smaller the better, and in a world of fast-developing technology, that’s called innovation. Just this month, a desk-sized turbine capable of powering a small town was announced to be under ...

A satellite image shows the huge snowstorm that blanketed the northeastern United States this week. The blizzard was an example of how storms are getting less common but more intense.