In 1824, French engineer Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot – known as the father of thermodynamics – proposed what is known as the Carnot engine, the most efficient engine which is theoretically possible.

At the smallest scales, heat engines can do more than Carnot ever imagined. Researchers at the University of Stuttgart have ...

Engineers have reported on the development of a microscopic motor operating between two thermal baths, that is, a micro Carnot engine. In a recent study published in Nature Physics, ICFO researchers ...

A British engine manufacturing start-up is taking inspiration from a 200 year-old principle of thermodynamics to achieve a significant breakthrough in engine technology, one which promises a ...

In 1813, Napoleon's failed campaign against Russia led to a coup d'état in Paris, France. Prussia and Austria then invaded France. Among the troops guarding Paris at the time was Sadie Carnot.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) have cracked an age-old thermodynamic puzzle by devising a novel micro heat ...

Thermoelectrics using nanostructures offers the potential of getting very close to the carnot limit of efficiency using very light weight systems for convert heat to electricity. Early versions of ...

An incredible new engine is powered by just a single calcium atom, and by being so small it can run more efficiently than scientists had previously believed possible. Share on Facebook (opens in a new ...

Thermodynamics is traditionally concerned with systems comprised of a large number of particles. Here we present a framework for extending thermodynamics to individual quantum systems, including ...

Two physicists at the University of Stuttgart have proven that the Carnot principle, a central law of thermodynamics, does not apply to objects on the atomic scale whose physical properties are linked ...