> The idea is to counter an incoming phonon (or one
> vector component of the phonon) with an anti-phonon,
> analogous to noise cancellation.
Exactly. Amazing, this is exactly the answer I was hoping to get.
This technique is also being developed on the macro level. Research on
sonic refrigeration is being done at the Naval Research Lab and in
Japan. Commercial refrigerators should be available soon if they aren't
already. I read about this about three or four years ago, and they said
they were three years away from a commercial product.
Coming back to the cell. A cruder form of this -- a sharpened rock --
would be to design a protein that absorbs the vibrations of an adjacent
protein in such a way as to calm it down, so to speak. To damp out
its vibrations. To cancel its noise. That would have the effect of
cooling it.
This is basically a physics problem. The fact that the vibrating
structures are proteins doesn't really enter into it. How does one design
a vibrating structure that absorbs and damps out the vibrations of an
adjacent structure?
Lyle