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 ...

“We’ve developed the world’s smallest steam engine, or to be more precise the smallest Stirling engine, and found that the machine really does perform work,” said Clemens Bechinger, a physicist at the ...

Ever since the invention of water mills in antiquity, through the development of the steam engine in the 18th century, and up to today’s turbines, many power generators rely on the principle of ...

Cool idea Jeremy Munday with a prototype Stirling engine that generates mechanical energy from the temperature difference between the Earth and deep space when placed outdoors at night. (Courtesy: ...