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Beads of Doubt: Second Law of Thermodynamics Untrue? -
BBC - UK ^ | December 18, 2003 | Dr David Whitehouse

Posted on 12/21/2003 7:13:14 PM PST by UnklGene

Beads of doubt: Second Law of Thermodynamics untrue? -

By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor

One of the most important principles of physics, that disorder, or entropy, always increases, has been shown to be untrue.

This result has profound consequences for any chemical or physical process that occurs over short times and in small regions

ANU team

Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) have carried out an experiment involving lasers and microscopic beads that disobeys the so-called Second Law of Thermodynamics, something many scientists had considered impossible.

The finding has implications for nanotechnology - the design and construction of molecular machines. They may not work as expected.

It may also help scientists better understand DNA and proteins, molecules that form the basis of life and whose behaviour in some circumstances is not fully explained.

No discussion

Flanders and Swann wrote a famous song entitled The First And Second Law about what entropy meant and its implications for the physical world. It has become a mantra for generations of scientists.

The law of entropy, or the Second Law of Thermodynamics, is one of the bedrocks on which modern theoretical physics is based. It is one of a handful of laws about which physicists feel most certain.

So much so that there is a common adage that if anyone has a theory that violates the Second Law then, without any discussion, that theory must certainly be wrong.

The Second Law states that the entropy - or disorder - of a closed system always increases. Put simply, it says that things fall apart, disorder overcomes everything - eventually. But when this principle is applied to small systems such as collections of molecules there is a paradox.

Human scales

This Second Law of Thermodynamics says that the disorder of the Universe can only increase in time, but the equations of classical and quantum mechanics, the laws that govern the behaviour of the very small, are time reversible.

A few years ago, a tentative theoretical solution to this paradox was proposed - the so-called Fluctuation Theorem - stating that the chances of the Second Law being violated increases as the system in question gets smaller.

This means that at human scales, the Second Law dominates and machines only ever run in one direction. However, when working at molecular scales and over extremely short periods of time, things can take place in either direction.

Now, scientists have demonstrated that principle experimentally.

Fraction of a second

Professor Denis Evans and colleagues at the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University put 100 tiny beads into a water-filled container. They fired a laser beam at one of the beads, electrically charging the tiny particle and trapping it.

The container holding the beads was then moved from side to side a thousand times a second so that the trapped bead would be dragged first one way and then the other.

The researchers discovered that in such a tiny system, entropy can sometimes decrease rather than increase.

This effect was seen when the researchers looked at the bead's behaviour for a tenth of a second. Any longer and the effect was lost.

Emerging science

The scientists say their finding could be important for the emerging science of nanotechnology. Researchers envisage a time when tiny machines no more than a few billionths of a metre across surge though our bodies to deliver drugs and destroy disease-causing pathogens.

This research means that on the very small scales of space and time such machines may not work the way we expect them to.

Essentially, the smaller a machine is, the greater the chance that it will run backwards. It could be extremely difficult to control.

The researchers said: "This result has profound consequences for any chemical or physical process that occurs over short times and in small regions."

The ANU work is published in Physical Review Letters.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: entropy; nanotechnology; science
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1 posted on 12/21/2003 7:13:15 PM PST by UnklGene
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To: UnklGene
I bet this will be as reproducible as cold fusion.
2 posted on 12/21/2003 7:17:36 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
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To: UnklGene
Entropy sucks. But not like it used to.
3 posted on 12/21/2003 7:17:38 PM PST by DarthFuzball ("Life is full of little surprises." - Pandora)
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To: UnklGene
I'd like to see a few other people repeat the experiment.
4 posted on 12/21/2003 7:18:31 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: UnklGene
They'll take away my Second Law of Thermodynamics

from my cold, dead fingers!

5 posted on 12/21/2003 7:19:45 PM PST by sonofatpatcher2 (Love & a .45-- What more could you want, campers? };^)
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To: UnklGene
Let me know when somebody gets a bowling ball to roll up a hill...
6 posted on 12/21/2003 7:20:09 PM PST by greenwolf
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
So there. I'm not cleanig my house any more.
7 posted on 12/21/2003 7:22:10 PM PST by meowmeow
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To: UnklGene
"The researchers discovered that in such a tiny system, entropy can sometimes decrease rather than increase. "

===

If they can prove this, the consequences can be remarkable.

8 posted on 12/21/2003 7:22:31 PM PST by FairOpinion
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To: Physicist
Ping
9 posted on 12/21/2003 7:23:04 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: UnklGene
"Beads of Doubt: Second Law of Thermodynamics Untrue?"

I KNEW It ! I didn't flunk that test after all !
10 posted on 12/21/2003 7:25:26 PM PST by RS
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To: UnklGene
"Beads of Doubt: Second Law of Thermodynamics Untrue?"

I KNEW It ! I didn't flunk that test after all !
11 posted on 12/21/2003 7:25:55 PM PST by RS
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To: FairOpinion
Someone needs to ping Prigogine with this one.
12 posted on 12/21/2003 7:28:18 PM PST by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: FairOpinion
This is a point I've been trying to make for a long time.
13 posted on 12/21/2003 7:32:03 PM PST by JusPasenThru (Reasoning with a man is futlile when his opinions were not reached by reason in the first place.)
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To: UnklGene
Human beings decrease the entropy of the universe.

(steely)

14 posted on 12/21/2003 7:34:04 PM PST by Steely Tom
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To: UnklGene
i always thought the contradiction bewteen evolution and entropy was a hoot...no matter how much sophistry academia spews to whitewash it, one argues against the other.
15 posted on 12/21/2003 7:37:33 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: FairOpinion
Eh, to be really technical, I don't know if I totally agree with the headline to the article.

Einstein didn't show Newton's laws to be "untrue" really...99.999% of the time Newton's laws are fine, and we went to the moon with them, etc. Newton wasn't "wrong."

This would really be a small-scale quantum violation of the 2nd Law, I guess. Broadly, the 2nd Law remains true.
16 posted on 12/21/2003 7:39:09 PM PST by John H K
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To: FairOpinion
IF it can be proven conclusively, it's as significant, if not more, than the discovery of theory of relativity.

If the 2nd law of termodynamics isn't true, than all of a sudden a lot of things, which we thought impossible, because they violated the 2nd law of termodynamics, now can become possible.
17 posted on 12/21/2003 7:39:20 PM PST by FairOpinion
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To: the invisib1e hand
i always thought the contradiction bewteen evolution and entropy was a hoot...no matter how much sophistry academia spews to whitewash it, one argues against the other.

The "hoot" is how moronic creationidiots who understand neither the 2nd law or evolution continually trot out the tired old canard that evolution violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It does not.

Helpful hint: The earth IS NOT A CLOSED SYSTEM.

18 posted on 12/21/2003 7:41:22 PM PST by John H K
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To: Steely Tom
Couldn't you apply that to all life, as life tends to strive for ordering its environment that contacts it, for a time suspending the 2nd law perhaps.
19 posted on 12/21/2003 7:42:38 PM PST by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; sourcery
ping
20 posted on 12/21/2003 7:43:15 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
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