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Jul 28, 2023Maxwell's demon imagined by physicists really exists inside our cells
Aug 01, 2023Proteins in the cell membranes of most organisms act like the hypothetical “demon” imagined by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867, which was thought to break the laws of physics
By Alex Wilkins
28 August 2023
James Clerk Maxwell imagined a demon that operates a door between two boxes of gas, allowing one side to become hotter than the other
Alpha Historica / Alamy /Science Photo Library
A hypothetical being described in a 155-year-old thought experiment, at the time thought to break the laws of thermodynamics, actually evolved billions of years ago in the form of proteins used by almost every living organism.
In 1867, physicist James Clerk Maxwell was pondering possible exceptions to the second law of thermodynamics, which says things must always flow from hot to cold unless there is some …
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