A hot topic of research nowadays is the energy transfer in quantum systems. One important reason for this interest is the famous 2007 experiment that suggests quantum effects in the dynamics of the photosynthetic complex FMO, from the green sulfur bacteria . This complex plays a crucial role in natural photosynthesis transferring an excitation from […]
Quantum mechanics represented a revolution in physics with implications in many other fields like chemistry and biology. It also conducted changes on some of the main scientific lines of thought, including a farewell to determinism. In the science before quantum mechanics probability was accepted only as a lack of knowledge from the system being studied […]
As we have discussed in our previous post, there is an important debate in the scientific community regarding the existence of negative absolute temperatures. The debate is not over, and both sides have valuable arguments, but in any case, one thing has already been proved. If negative absolute temperatures are real, the requirement to achieve […]
Sunlight is the most important energy source of Earth. All earthlings live thanks to the ability of plants and bacteria to transform solar energy into chemical one. As sunlight is a free, and practically unlimited, energy source it is easy to understand the general interest in finding efficient ways of transforming it into electrical power […]
Almost everyone with basic knowledge of physics have one clear concept, there is a minimum temperature and it is called ‘absolute zero’. This temperature corresponds to -273.15 degrees in the Celsius scale. In the Kelvin or absolute scale it is zero, by definition. Furthermore, there is another idea that is also widespread: absolute zero is […]
One of the most important features of thermodynamics is that it has improved human quality of life amazingly during the last centuries. Since in 1606, the Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont patented the first steam engine a great effort has been done in developing new and better thermal machines. Internal combustion engines, heat […]
The second law of thermodynamics is one of the oldest and most tested physical laws. Unfortunately, it prevents us from doing very useful things, like creating a perpetual motion machine of the second kind. This law is extremely important for both theoretical and practical purposes and, because of that, it has been broadly studied since […]
Both thermodynamics and quantum mechanics are very important theories, but they are applicable to very different kinds of systems. Thermodynamics describes macroscopic systems where the number of particles is huge (around Avogadro’s number: 6.022×1023). On the other hand, quantum mechanics describes the behavior of microscopic particles. The regimes where these two theories can be applied […]
Quantum mechanics and relativity constitute the two main revolutions in physics on the twentieth century. Furthermore, the counterintuitive character of quantum mechanics yields to a rich branch of different possible interpretations, and there are still many open questions. Not solving, but just defining these questions, was the main purpose of a conference entitled “Quantum physics […]
Quantum computing is one of the most interesting fields of study nowadays, both from theoretical and pragmatic point of views. A universal quantum computer can potentially solve certain problems, as factorizing numbers, much faster and with fewer resources than a classical one . This developing technology is based on the use of quantum mechanics as […]