So long second law..

[blike]

BBC is reporting that scientists have broken the second law of thermodynamics.

 

I somehow feel that this is a media distortion, as usual, but I could be very wrong. Perhaps someone more well versed in physics can explain better.

[Radical Edward]

yep, it appears to have been broken, although only on small scales. however I think there is still some scepticism within the scientific community. Remember that this only applies to tiny systems - ones that I expect are practically quantum. In effect it is saying that on very small scales, time is more or less meaningless if you can't tell which way it is flowing by the change in entropy.

[aman]

The closed system they use has laser energy and vibration energy so it doesn't really seem closed to me. Am I wrong?

Just aman

[blike]

Thats what I was thinking, aman.

[Radical Edward]

the explanation of the experiment is rather poor. I will see if I can hunt down the proper paper when I get into univerity in a while.