Fox
News: For the first time, scientists in Japan have
converted information into pure energy. In their experiment,
they caused a molecule to climb up a very small “spiral
staircase” made of potential energy and created using
electric fields. The molecule, which had some thermal energy,
moved in random directions. When it went up the staircase, the
scientists let it continue; when it went down, they blocked its
motion by inserting a virtual wall using an electric field. As
the particle moved up the staircase, it gained
energy—without the group having to add any; to guide the
climb, they simply used the information about which direction
the particle happened to be moving at any given time. Their
results were published in the 14 November issue of
Nature Physics
.
