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

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 failed to describe systems that are out of ...

In a new publication, Professor José-María Martín-Olalla, from the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Seville, has described the direct link between the vanishing of specific ...

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 ...

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

While investigating the causes of the Three Mile Island accident and advising the EPRI (the Electric Power Research Institute) on their research program for the safety issues involved, it became quite ...

The likelihood of seeing quantum systems violating the second law of thermodynamics has been calculated by scientists. The team determined a more precise version of a basic law of physics - which says ...

Those of us who remember our school science classes are pretty familiar with the three laws of thermodynamics, but did you know there's another law? The zeroth law of thermodynamics, as its known, was ...