Einstein once boldly claimed that the Laws of Thermodynamics were the only physical theory of the universe that will 'never be overthrown'.
That all changed late last month, when scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory at the University of Chicago found a loophole in the system - one that allows them to break the second law of thermodynamics.
The finding has huge implications for our understanding of the universe, not least because it presents us with a chance to one day create perpetual motion machines.
*Not really. Back in 2013 I wrote about Hotelling's Rule in it's simplest form:
For a non-renewable, exhaustible resource with completely known stock, no discoveries possible, no alternatives, no recycling, private ownership and constant costs of extraction, the price of the resource will increase at the interest rate over time.
If these scientists are right (and Einstein was wrong...idiot), then energy might be infinitely renewable...at least for a little while...
The ANL researchers claim that their loophole could bypass this long-held rule of the universe, allowing the accelerating march of entropy to go in the opposite direction.
This would only be on a small, local scale, and for short periods of time.
...and energy prices would fall to zero.
