Thermodynamics

Thanks to the power of fluctuation relations, physicists are taking the second law of thermodynamics to settings once thought impossible.

A mathematical model shows how a thermodynamic mechanism could have made protocells split in two.

Investigations of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well as insights into the nature of time itself.

The thorny thought experiment has been turned into a real experiment — one that physicists use to probe the physics of information.

Unusual proteins that can quickly fold into different shapes provide cells with a novel regulatory mechanism.

Push or crush a new class of materials, and they’ll undergo record-breaking temperature changes.

A new look at a ubiquitous phenomenon has uncovered unexpected fractal behavior that could give us clues about the early universe and the arrow of time.

Researchers explore a loophole that extracts useful energy from a fluid’s seemingly random motion. The secret? Sugar and asymmetry.

A recent experiment shows how quantum mechanics can make heat flow from a cold body to a hot one, an apparent (though not real) violation of the second law of thermodynamics.