{"id":114911,"date":"2020-10-22T15:28:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T22:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/a-machine-learning-algorithm-that-can-infer-the-direction-of-the-thermodynamic-arrow-of-time"},"modified":"2020-10-22T15:28:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T22:28:08","slug":"a-machine-learning-algorithm-that-can-infer-the-direction-of-the-thermodynamic-arrow-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/a-machine-learning-algorithm-that-can-infer-the-direction-of-the-thermodynamic-arrow-of-time","title":{"rendered":"A machine-learning algorithm that can infer the direction of the thermodynamic arrow of time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/a-machine-learning-algorithm-that-can-infer-the-direction-of-the-thermodynamic-arrow-of-time3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The second law of thermodynamics delineates an asymmetry in how physical systems evolve over time, known as the arrow of time. In macroscopic systems, this asymmetry has a clear direction (e.g., one can easily notice if a video showing a system\u2019s evolution over time is being played normally or backward).<\/p>\n<p>In the microscopic world, however, this direction is not always apparent. In fact, fluctuations in microscopic systems can lead to clear violations of the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/second+law+of+thermodynamics\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">second law of thermodynamics<\/a>, causing the arrow of <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/time\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">time<\/a> to become blurry and less defined. As a result, when watching a video of a microscopic process, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether it is being played normally or backwards.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at University of Maryland developed a <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/machine+learning+algorithm\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">machine learning algorithm<\/a> that can infer the direction of the thermodynamic arrow of time in both macroscopic and microscopic processes. This algorithm, presented in a paper published in <i>Nature Physics<\/i>, could ultimately help to uncover new physical principles related to thermodynamics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second law of thermodynamics delineates an asymmetry in how physical systems evolve over time, known as the arrow of time. In macroscopic systems, this asymmetry has a clear direction (e.g., one can easily notice if a video showing a system\u2019s evolution over time is being played normally or backward). In the microscopic world, however, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-science","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}