More than 200 years ago, Count Rumford showed that heat isn’t a mysterious substance but something you can generate endlessly through motion. That insight laid the foundation for thermodynamics, the ...

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The Laws of Thermodynamics explain ...

When laser light passes through a cavity filled with atoms, part of it can do useful work (for instance, charge a quantum battery, top), whereas the other part turns into “heat” (bottom). Credit: ...

The physics of thermodynamics, which involves quantities like heat and entropy, offers well-established tools for determining how far from equilibrium an idealised system of particles is. But when it ...

What if the future of artificial intelligence wasn’t just faster or smarter, but fundamentally more sustainable? Picture this: a world where the energy demands of AI no longer threaten to outpace our ...

Two physicists at the University of Stuttgart have proven that the Carnot principle, a central law of thermodynamics, does not apply to objects on the atomic scale whose physical properties are linked ...

A team of researchers at the USC’s (University of Southern California) Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has designed what it calls “the first optical device that follows ...

A team in Japan has harnessed non-thermal quantum states to break classical thermodynamic limits, converting waste heat into electricity with record efficiency. Credit: Stock Researchers have ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Researchers have made a breakthrough in applying the first law of thermodynamics to complex systems. The law is a bedrock of physics, but has long ...