It can generate enough power that is 'comparable to molecular machinery in living cells.'
A 150-year-old thought experiment inspired a group of scientists from the Simon Fraser University in Canada to create a surprisingly fast engine that runs on a unique fuel -- information., turns the random jiggling of tiny particles into stored energy and has the potential to significantly improve the speed and affordability of computers and bio-nano technologies.
"That's the kind of information that we're using," explained SFU physics professor and senior author Prof. John Bechoefer in an SFU video."We wanted to find out how fast an information engine can go and how much energy it can extract, so we made one."A microscopic particle 'bead' immersed in water serves as their information engine. It's connected to a spring that's attached to a movable stage.
Thermal motion causes the particle to bounce up and down, and the researchers observe, playing the role of. In Maxwell's thought experiment, a demon would control a door between two gas chambers, with the goal of sending fast-moving gas particles into one compartment and slow ones into another. In their study, when researchers saw an upward bounce, they moved the stage up in response, and they waited if there was a downward bounce.
The researchers also discovered a fascinating trade-off between the particle mass and the average time it takes for a particle to bounce up."While heavier particles can store more gravitational energy, they generally also take longer to move up," said Joseph Lucero, a Master of Science student. The researchers were able to get the system to generate enough power that is"comparable to molecular machinery in living cells," with"speeds comparable to fast-swimming bacteria," said postdoctoral fellow Jannik Ehrich, and the extracted power and velocity has outperformedFrom a thought experiment devised 150 years ago to actually seeing it in practice, it'll be interesting to see the types of applications that will emerge from information-fueled engines in the future,...
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