Can quantum systems become more disordered, as thermodynamics would predict? Yes, they can - if a proper definition of "entropy" is used. It is one of the most important laws of nature that we know: ...

For more than a century, thermodynamics has described how heat flows and engines run, while quantum mechanics has ruled the ...

Quantum information theory is a field of study that examines how quantum technologies store and process information. Over the ...

Schematic of a single photon with zero angular momentum (green) splitting into two photons (red) with either zero or opposite angular momenta (sketched through the spatially varying color), which adds ...

Physicists have long sensed that the usual picture of events unfolding as a sequence of causes and effects doesn’t capture the fundamental nature of things. They say this causal perspective probably ...

We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American. Explore our legacy of discovery and look ahead to the future. This year is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, according to ...

Quantum technologies could transform society—but their national and economic security implications also bring complex legal hurdles. To help innovators navigate those challenges, the Chicago Quantum ...

It took 125 years, but in 2025 a team of mathematicians discovered the solution to a long-puzzling problem about the ...

More than 200 years ago, Count Rumford showed that heat isn’t a mysterious substance but something you can generate endlessly ...