USD Magazine, Fall 2002

Breaking all the Scientists Push the Envelope in Search of Endless Energy Source

By Krystn Shrieve Y ou may have never heard of the second law of thermodynamics, bur it's at the heart of what most sci– entists hold dear - an iron-dad, 150-year-old rule chat describes why time moves in a straight line, why things move from order to disor– der, and why hot things eventually cool down. But in a landmark conference held at USD chis summer, scientists from all over the world came together to engage in a certain kind of scientific blasphemy - a free-ranging debate over the validity of the law, a notion so radical that previously it had only been whispered in the halls of academia. "If chis field takes off, USD likely will be remembered as the place where it started," says physics Professor Daniel Sheehan, who organ– ized the conference. Although the second law of thermodynamics has never been dis– proved, experiments done in the last decade - particularly on the quantum level of microscopic atoms - made some scientists think it might not be absolute. If the law can be violated, the result eventu– ally could be endless energy resources, reducing our reliance on coal and oil for power. "If the second law is violated, it would mean that heat could be turned into work and recycled indefinitely," Sheehan says."ln princi– ple, we'd never have ro pay a power bill again." In search of that energy Holy Grail, Sheehan moves forward with experiments. His latest research centers on building a microscopic sil– icon device that creates an electrical field and stores electrostatic ener– gy, as well as a piston that plunges at a race of about a million times per second, allowing the energy to be capped. He has reseed the con– cept using advanced semiconductor device simulator programs, and estimates char, in principle, it could be built with in five years. "I know it all sounds science-ficciony," Sheehan says. "But computers seemed magical 50 years ago, the quartz clock on your desk would have been unfathomable 100 years ago. So many things we have in society were not even conceived of when the second law was developed chat it seems silly to discount as impossible any challenge to ic."

Sheehan and Vlada Capek, of the Institute of Physics at Charles University in Prague, are writing a book, Challenges to the Second Law ofThermodynamics, to be published lacer this year. The confer– ence's 120 scientists, from more than 20 countries, also will have a compilation of their work on the topic published by the American Institute of Physics. While most conference discussions were barely decipherable to the average person, attendees took an informal survey at the end to see if

they believed the sec- ond law is absolute, if it is negotiable, or if they're still undecided. The vote can1e out even, and, in face, many chose al l three opt1ons. And so che debate continues. Peter D . Keefe, a patent attorney who handles intellectual property matters, says even if the conference didn't end the debate, ic was still valuable. "Every one of these ideas requires an

The Second Law of Thermodynamics 1. Heat moves spontaneously into a cold object, not vice versa, which is why ice in your hand melts, rather than getting colder. 2. In every energy transaction, some energy is lost, often as fric– tion, which is why spare change tossed on a table eventually stops bouncing, rather than perpetually moving. 3. Order decreases with time, which is why as humans age, their cells, skin and muscles degenerate.

esoteric experiment that, for the most part, people will ignore," Keefe says. "The most important thing we got out of chis conference is che attendance list, because we in chis room are all open-minded and can continue the discussion ."

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FALL 2002