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kytheskeptic
New Member
USA
25 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
 Posted - 11/15/2010 : 00:27:58 [Permalink]
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From my reading, it doesn't sound like they turned information into energy so much as used information to direct an otherwise completely random expenditure of energy. The atoms were already jostling and causing a bead to spin back and forth at random. They simply absorbed some of that energy and stopped the bead from spinning in a certain direction. So imagine if the bead was being randomly jostled Left and Right: a typical random string looking something like this: LLRLRLLRLRLRLRLLLRRRLLR. Quantum gibberish. The randomness of it means on average the directions cancel each other out and the bead remains stationary. But by removing all the left turns, the sequence suddenly looked like this: --R-R--R-R-R-R---RRR--R. Little by little, those little movements added up and they kept the bead spinning uniformly in the same direction, like a little rotor.
In other words, they took an otherwise random process and directed it. Used it to do work. Got the bead spinning in a uniform direction. Took it from disorder to order without putting any new energy into the system (a supposedly impossible feat). They simply did it by selectively removing certain expenditures of energy from the system and leaving others in.
But getting a single bead to spin in a certain direction requires very little energy. So while this experiment shows a cool proof of principle, we're not going to be harnessing it to power our toasters anytime soon. Might one day prove useful in nanorobotics. Who's to say? Also interesting to think life might be doing something similar to this. What's the best definition of life if not temporary entropy reversing machines? Maybe all life really is just a horde of little Maxwell's demons? Eddies in the great river of entropy, making a little energy flow upstream before being swept away in the current again. Discovering something like this occurring in nature could provide key insights into the origin of life.
So really cool article. Thanks for posting it. If I understand it, that is.  A lot of times I think I do only to find out I really don't.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 11/15/2010 01:00:27 |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2010 : 01:09:17 [Permalink]
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Neither does the writer of the article:
| The laws of physics say that you can't get energy for nothing |
Which isn't exactly true, according to Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle as applied to energy-time. For a short time, you can borrow energy from nothing.
Also, the description of Maxwell's Demon thought-experiment leaves out why it actually failes to violate the second law of thermodynamics, even though it was meant to demonstrate how it could be broken. (The article only says that the experiment itself still obeys the 2:nd law, not that the through-experiment was debunked)
When the electricity is sent into the buffer sollution, it acts as a force on the bead to prevent it to lose its potential energy; it counteracts the "negative" energy imparted by the surrounding molecules. So, electrical energy is being expended, which directly impacts the bead.
I'm still not convinced that this experiment is a good analogy to Maxwell's Demon, neither do I agree that it was pure information that powered the bead's ascent.
The timing belt in the engine of my car decides when the valves are to open. Thus it is carrying information from the crank-shaft to the cam-shaft, without that information the engine would be dead.
Volia! My car is powered by information!
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Demonic Device Converts Information to Engery
