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thermodynamics

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A shining lightbulb with a cord that’s not plugged in.
quantum physics

Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing

By Charlie Wood
February 22, 2023
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The quantum energy teleportation protocol was proposed in 2008 and largely ignored. Now two independent experiments have shown that it works.

a light blue cloudy swirl against a black background (evoking ink diffusing through a liquid). The blue cloud is overlaid with a network of yellow lines and circular nodes.
machine learning

The Physics Principle That Inspired Modern AI Art

By Anil Ananthaswamy
January 5, 2023
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Diffusion models generate incredible images by learning to reverse the process that, among other things, causes ink to spread through water.

A hand holds a spherical, starry universe that resembles almost all the balls in a nearby gumball machine. Two balls in the machine are a different color.
cosmology

Why This Universe? A New Calculation Suggests Our Cosmos Is Typical.

By Charlie Wood
November 17, 2022
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Two physicists have calculated that the universe has a higher entropy — and is therefore more likely — than alternative possible universes.

Dendritic ice crystals grow from top to bottom across the frame of a video.
condensed matter physics

Controversy Continues Over Whether Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold

By Adam Mann
June 29, 2022
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Decades after a Tanzanian teenager initiated study of the “Mpemba effect,” the effort to confirm or refute it is leading physicists toward new theories about how substances relax to equilibrium.

A curly arrow being straightened out.
theoretical physics

Physicists Rewrite the Fundamental Law That Leads to Disorder

By Philip Ball
May 26, 2022
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The second law of thermodynamics is among the most sacred in all of science, but it has always rested on 19th century arguments about probability. New arguments trace its true source to the flows of quantum information.

Quantized Columns

Beyond the Second Law

By Nicole Yunger Halpern
March 31, 2022
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Thanks to the power of fluctuation relations, physicists are taking the second law of thermodynamics to settings once thought impossible.

Close-up video of bubbles in a lava lamp moving and splitting under the influence of heat.
origins of life

At the Dawn of Life, Heat May Have Driven Cell Division

By Carrie Arnold
November 23, 2021
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A mathematical model shows how a thermodynamic mechanism could have made protocells split in two.

Illustration of various kinds of clocks floating against a pink background.
quantum information theory

The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks

By Natalie Wolchover
August 31, 2021
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Investigations of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well as insights into the nature of time itself.

An illustration of a demon’s face.
explainers

How Maxwell’s Demon Continues to Startle Scientists

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
April 22, 2021
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The thorny thought experiment has been turned into a real experiment — one that physicists use to probe the physics of information.


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