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Scientists Build Smallest, Single Atom, Working Heat Engine (popularmechanics.com)

Posted by msmash on from the going-smaller dept.

William Herkewitz, writing for Popular Mechanics: Physicists have just built the smallest working engine ever created. It's a heat-powered motor barely larger than the single atom it runs on. Designed and build by a team of experimental physicists led by Johannes at the University of Mainz in Germany, the single atom engine is about as efficient as your car at transforming the changing temperature into mechanical energy. While scientists have previously created several micro-engines consisting of a mere 10,000 particles, Johannes's new engine blows these out of the water by paring down the machine to a singular atom housed in a nano-sized cone of electromagnetic radiation. The project is outlined today in the journal Science. "The engine has the same working principles as the well-known [combustion] car engine," Johannes says. It follows the same four strokes; expanding then cooling, contracting then heating.There's some confusion here. The article says it's a "four-stroke" engine. But as we know, a four-stroke engine consists of an intake stroke, a compression stroke, a power stroke, and an exhaust stroke -- things that the engine in the article doesn't seem to have. The article doesn't mention how a single atom is able to mimic all the effects of a combustion engine. Update: 04/15 18:24 GMT by M :The article appears to have been updated for clarification.

5 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Smallest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the part that creates nano-sized cone of electromagnetic radiation counts as part of the engine.

    1. Re:Smallest? by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think the part that creates nano-sized cone of electromagnetic radiation counts as part of the engine.

      I question it being called a heat engine at all. The energy source is a laser. A laser is a highly organized beam of radiation. Heat is disorganized. This seems to have more in common with a photoelectric effect. The big difference from the photoelectric effect being the fact this system creates mechanical work instead of electric current.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    2. Re:Smallest? by somenickname · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My initial thought as well. Reading the article, what they've actually created is a single atom piston with insanely complex machinery to drive the piston. Still pretty cool but, pretty far from a "single atom working heat engine".

  2. Popular Mechanics by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is a Popular Mechanics article, of course there is some confusion. Sensationalism is that they sell nowadays. It used to be a good magazine.

    1. Re:Popular Mechanics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The authors of this paper are referring to the four thermodynamic states of an engine. The "4-stroke" of a combustion engine refers to the mechanical devices used to transition the system from one state to another. They are conceptually related, hence the analogy.