An engine that uses fuel - information. Summoning a Demon from 150 Years Ago

Can information become a source of energy? Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada have developed an ultra-fast engine that they claim "acts on information." In their opinion, this is a breakthrough in the search for new types of fuel.

Research results on this topic have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In this article, we will learn how scientists have converted the movement of molecules into stored energythen used to control the device.

The idea of ​​such a system, which at first glance seems to violate the laws of physics, was first proposed by a Scottish scientist in 1867. The mental experiment known as "Maxwell's demon" is a hypothetical machine that some think could enable something like a perpetual motion machine, or in other words, show what can be broken. second law of thermodynamics talk about the increase in entropy in nature.

which will control the opening and closing of a tiny door between the two gas chambers. The goal of the demon will be to send fast moving gas molecules into one chamber and slow moving ones into another. Thus, one chamber will be warmer (containing faster particles) and the other colder. The demon will create a system with more order and accumulated energy than the one it started with without expending any energy, i.e. it will presumably experience a decrease in entropy.

1. Scheme of the information engine

However, the work of the Hungarian physicist Leo Sillard from 1929 to demon Maxwell showed that the thought experiment did not violate the second law of thermodynamics. The demon, Szilard argued, must summon a certain amount of energy in order to figure out whether the molecules are hot or cold.

Now scientists from a Canadian university have built a system that works on the idea of ​​Maxwell's thought experiment, turning information into "work". Their design includes a model of a particle that is submerged in water and attached to a spring, which in turn is connected to the stage, which can be moved up.

Scientists take on a role demon Maxwell, watch the particle move up or down due to thermal motion, and then move the scene up if the particle bounces up randomly. If it bounces down, they are waiting. As one of the researchers, Tushar Saha, explains in the publication, “this ends up lifting the entire system (i.e., an increase in gravitational energy - ed. note) using only information about the position of the particle” (1).

2. Information machine in the laboratory

Obviously, the elementary particle is too small to stick to the spring, so the real system (2) uses a tool known as an optical trap - with a laser to apply a force to the particle that simulates the force acting on the spring.

By repeating the process without directly dragging the particle, the particle rose to a "greater height", accumulating a large amount of gravitational energy. At least, that's what the authors of the experiment say. The amount of energy generated by this system is "comparable to the molecular machinery in living cells" and "comparable to fast moving bacteria," another team member explains. Yannick Erich.