Re: A thread that has nothing to do with memes or the Singularity
Forrest Bishop (forrestb@ix.netcom.com)
Mon, 2 Dec 1996 13:03:00 -0800
You wrote:
>
>
>Design problem #1.
>
>Suppose you want to build a cell that acts as a refrigerator. The
cell
>contains a vacuole within which the temperature can be reduced to a
>point near absolute zero. How could this be done? What mechanism
>could the cell use to pump heat out of a small region? We assume that
>the cell has a source of energy, and that its surroundings can serve
as
>a heat sink.
>
>Lyle
>
Remember that the inner cell walls will accept radiative
energy as (T2-T1)^4. The skin depth, or rather 1/e penetration
depth, for thermal photons
is on the order of a few hundred nanometers. This may
set lower bounds on the size of the cell.
Forrest