Science Stories

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Surprising stories from the history of science told by Naomi Alderman and Philip Ball.

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Science Stories: Maxwell's Demon

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Maxwell's Demon

BBC Radio 4 - Science Stories, Maxwell's Demon

Philip Ball explains the thought experiment that niggled at physics for a century.

Philip Ball explains the thought experiment that niggled at physics for a century, and was born from a religious objection.

Philip Ball explains the thought experiment, motivated by religion, that niggled physicists for a hundred years. To rescue free will from the clutches of deterministic science, James Clark Maxwell picked a hole in the second law of thermodynamics, aided by a demon. Maxwell's Demon would give us a whole new insight into the very nature of information, and what we do with it, and maybe even what the universe is made of.

Matthew Stanley, author of Huxley's Church and Maxwell's Demon, describes how Maxwell's deeply religious personality flavoured much of his thinking.

In the present day, Vlatko Vedral of Oxford University explains how the experiment Maxwell never thought physically possible is now being done in labs, and shows us how to turn information into energy.

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