Researchers have built an electronic variant of a Brownian ratchet that allows microscopic particles to be separated by size. Dutch researcher Wijnand Germs built an electronic variant of a Brownian ...

Brownian motors and ratchet systems constitute a field of study that leverages stochastic fluctuations to generate directed motion in systems otherwise dominated by thermal noise. These devices ...

(Nanowerk News) The ratchet mechanism is a fascinating energy-conversion system that converts disorderly or random motion into orderly, directed movement through a process known as spontaneous ...

DNA-nanoparticle motors are exactly as they sound: tiny artificial motors that use the structures of DNA and RNA to propel motion by enzymatic RNA degradation. Essentially, chemical energy is ...

A little perpetual motion device called the Feynman-Smoluchowski Rachet, also known as the Brownian Ratchet, was an early attempt at defying the laws of thermodynamics. It failed, but it was an ...

In many people’s minds, the primary focus of physics is on the very large (black holes, the distant universe and the problems of cosmology) or the very small (the Higgs boson and the other subatomic ...

The proposed ratchet mechanism utilizes the asymmetry in surface wettability between the smooth and rough faces of the teeth of a geometrically symmetric gear to achieve ratcheting motion. The ratchet ...