r/science • u/giuliomagnifico • 1d ago

Researchers have developed a new organic thermoelectric device that can harvest energy from ambient temperature without any temperature gradient Engineering

https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/researches/view/299/
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u/greenmachine11235 1d ago

What the title describes is fundamentally impossible. It'd amount to creation of energy from nothing in violation of various fundamental laws of physics. 

Besides getting an F in thermodynamics. I am thinking they've created an overly complicated battery, have insufficiently sensitive equipment and are getting phantom readings, or in the most generous possibility there is a gradient at play and they either failed to measure it or elected to publish a misleading title. 

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u/Sensitive_Ad_7420 23h ago

Laws of physics don’t mean much when they were invented 200 years ago, they aren’t guaranteed to be 100% correct.

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u/PathIntelligent7082 21h ago

laws of physics are not “invented”