When French engineer Sadi Carnot calculated the maximum efficiency of a heat engine in 1824, he had no idea what heat was. In those days, physicists thought heat was a fluid called caloric. But Carnot ...

The quantum advantage: Coherent superposition in quantum heat engines can enhance power output over classical machines. Credit: iStock Traffic-Analyzer Heat engines have had a huge impact on everyday ...

Scientists are working on a heat engine that consists of just a single ion. Such a nano-heat engine could be far more efficient than, for example, a car engine or a coal-fired power plant. Scientists ...

For the first time, a quantum engine has outperformed its traditional equivalent, without any special tweaks to its environment. The device harnesses the weird physics of very small objects to produce ...

Engineers have developed a heat engine with no moving parts that is as efficient as a steam turbine. The design could someday enable a fully decarbonized power grid, researchers say. Engineers at MIT ...

In and out: An illustration of the quantum engine as a piston, showing the piston compressed when the particles in the gas exist as bosonic molecules and expanded when they are individual fermionic ...

Researchers at MIT have built a highly efficient thermophotovoltaic cell that, when paired with renewable resources, efficiently converts incoming photons—particles of light—to electricity. It’s an ...