This is Prof. Kostic's Web site being transitioned from the original or Legacy Web(*) - sorry for broken links referring to it!

Reflections on the Universal Validity of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
"After all, before the '2nd Law violation' claims are stated, the reliable criteria for the 2nd Law violation, including proper definition and evaluation of entropy, should be established based on full comprehension of the fundamental Laws." See also Dissecting 2ndLaw Challenges [https://goo.gl/cJ56jO] * Maxwell's Demon *

"It is hard to believe that a serious scientist, who truly comprehend the 2nd Law and its essence, would challenge it based on incomplete and elusive facts."

(Thermodynamics is subtle and elusive. Sometimes, highly respected scientists in their fields, do not fully comprehend the essence of the 2nd Law of thermodynamics)

The current frenzy about the 2nd Law violation (getting 'useful energy' from within equilibrium-PMM2) is in many ways similar to the prior frenzy about the 1st Law violation (getting 'energy' from nowhere-PMM1).

As the fundamental laws of nature and thermodynamics are expended from simple systems in physics and chemistry, to different space and time scales and to much more complex systems in biology, life and intelligent processes, there are more challenges to be comprehended and understood.

[BUT! 'Making something hotter and cooler' (temperature difference) does not necessarily imply heat transfer from lower to higher temperature, since it could be done by adiabatic (ideally isentropic) expansion without heat transfer (e.g., as in refrigeration processes, 'vortex tube', etc.), either external work is applied or internal work-potential (possibly 'correlation' potential) is 'converted' to thermal non-equilibrium].

M. Kostic, Challenges to the Second Law Challengers, Limits to the Second Law of Thermodynamics Symposium, 2016.
AAAS Pacific Division 97th Annual Meeting, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, June 14-17, 2016 * Presentations-Abstracts*Highlighted-SI

 Elusive Nature of Entropy & The 2nd Law

Reflections on the Universal Validity of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
 

M. Kostic, Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering Department, Northern Illinois University

 www.kostic.niu.edu * Email: kostic@niu.edu 
Entropy can be decreased, but cannot be destroyed! See Abstract and links below: The 'challengers' need to demonstrate and quantify destruction of entropy to challenge the universal validity of the Second Law. It has been reasoned and thus proven here that destruction of entropy, i.e., violation of the Second Law, is against the forced tendency of natural processes and thus impossible, leaving 'No Hope' for the challengers. After all, the 'Wishful Maxwell's Demon' could not be realized since 1867.

Presentation (PDF-Layout) *PPT Slides: Paradox, No HOPE, Process, 2nd&1st Laws, S.Equilibrium, Reasoning, Boltzmann, Demon

Picnic Photo(More-And)*Some feedbacks: What is this guy like?, You wore several hats...
Cartwheel at La Jolla Beach (near San Diego, California, USA, June 2016) * See also Worldwide Travel * Flips Etc. & China*

Abstract: A growing, but small group of creative scientists and inventors, the “Second Law Challengers,” are 'bravely' challenging the Second Law universal validity, often based on a fact that they have been successful in achieving a non-equilibrium, using innovative and creative methods and processes, and hoping to utilize it to produce energy from the environment, as a single thermodynamic reservoir. However, nobody has been successful to achieve sustained conversion of environmental (thermal) energy to work (stationary or cyclic) nor to provide reliable evidence (comprehensive energy and entropy 'accounting') of achieving a sustainable overall process efficiency higher than the Carnot's (which is zero-impossible from only a single thermal reservoir). After all, the Second Law is related to a working process direction (towards equilibrium) and its limitation, degradation up to conservation, but not spontaneous creation of nonequilibrium, the latter quantified by its work potential. Related issues will be reasoned and analyzed here. Just achieving a sustainable non-equilibrium state is not a violation of the Second Law. As the fundamental laws of nature and thermodynamics are expended from simple systems in physics and chemistry, to different space and time scales and to much more complex systems in biology, life and intelligent processes, there are more challenges to be comprehended and understood. There is a need to better discern the fundamental concepts at different scales and complex systems, like more complex “structural equilibrium,” a self-sustained, steady-state without net-fluxes at scale of interest, but with non-uniform concentration-potentials under coupled force fields; e.g., hydrostatic pressure and adiabatic temperature distributions in gravity field, charge and concentration distributions in electromagnetic-chemical fields, as well as, to differentiate between transient and stationary processes under influence of known and stealth boundary and field conditions. The 'challengers' need to demonstrate and quantify destruction of entropy to challenge universal validity of the Second Law. It has been reasoned and thus proven here that destruction of entropy, i.e., violation of the Second Law, is against the forced tendency of natural processes and thus impossible, leaving 'No Hope' for the challengers. After all, the 'Wishful Maxwell's Demon' could not be realized since 1867. [See also my Comments on Arrow of Time and Common Law of Physics]

The following NOTE is motivated by my recent work on a series of manuscripts (in progress) regarding the essence and universal validity of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (2nd Law) and physical meaning of entropy, including my recent participation in the 2nd Law Symposium in San Diego, California, and it is prompted by a very recent email from Dr. Polihronov, an author of a vortex-tube related paper in Physical Review Letters, 054504, 2012, stating that "vortex tube is in apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics," see elsewhere. After my reply to him, 

"The 'challengers' need to demonstrate and quantify destruction of entropy to challenge universal validity of the Second Law. It has been reasoned and thus proven here that destruction of entropy, i.e., violation of the Second Law, is against the forced tendency of natural processes and thus impossible, leaving 'No Hope' for the challengers. After all, the 'Wishful Maxwell's Demon' could not be realized since 1867... It surprises me that the observed Vortex Tube stayed unexplained for so long. It only confirms that the 2nd Law is not fully comprehended by many, even nowadays the 2nd Law universality is unjustifiably questioned :(. The physics of the vortex tube is very clear to me: it is just another and interesting type of refrigeration device that achieves cooling by using external work of compressed air. The same compressed air could be used to run a turbine and produce work to run in turn a classical refrigeration machine. The reversible efficiency is independent of device type and real devices are always irreversible with lower efficiency - that is the meaning and spirit of the 2nd Law."

I received a prompt response from Dr. Polihronov, stating, "I fully agree with your analysis about the second law in vortex tubes … they appear to violate second law (yet they do not)."

Similarly, at the recent 2nd Law Symposium in San Diego (June 2016, see above), a number of participants could not have been taken seriously, and others talked about "anomalies, challenges, apparent violation, ..." but without clear and scientific criteria for the 2nd Law violation. After I presented my reasoning that, "Just achieving a sustainable non-equilibrium state is not a violation of the Second Law. ..."  and clear, scientific criteria for the 2nd Law violation, "The 'challengers' need to demonstrate and quantify destruction of entropy to challenge universal validity of the Second Law.", a number of respected participants expressed full agreement with my position that the 2nd Law violation has not been proved yet. More details are available at Challenges to the Second Law Challengers.

The purpose of this correspondence is to emphasize my position on the universality of the 2nd Law and to make aware the future contributors that sound and objective evaluation of the manuscripts, claiming violation of the 2nd Law without due rigor and valid criteria for the violation, should be objectively performed based on scientific reasoning and comprehensible proofs, not “apparent” subjective and partial claims. 

With that in mind, I still like to keep my eyes and ears open for respectful and constructive discussions.

Sincerely and respectfully yours,

MK

Worldwide Travel: 2016 2nd Law Symposium was extended with travel within San Diego area in California, USA (666 mi or 1070 km of sightseeing, 14-26 June 2016): 
San Diego (USD-Photos-AAAS-2nd Law (Photos), Sea World-Skytower (Photos+Dolphins+Splash), Balboa Park (Photos), Gaslamp Quarter (Photos), Old Town (Photos+And), Seaport Village (Photos), 2-Hr (South&North) Harbor cruise (Photos), Downtown & Little Italy (Photos), Mission Bay beaches (Photos+And+And), Escondido (Rancho Bernardo Inn& Radisson, and Welk Resort (Photos)), Temecula Wineries (Monte De Oro wine tasting (Photos)), Coronado beach (Photos+And+And), La Jolla (Beach & Cove-Photos+And+Cartwheel), Del Mar, Encinitas (Photo), Carlsbad (Photos), Oceanside (Photos), Dana Point (Photos), San Juan Capistrano (Mission San Juan Capistrano (Photos)), Laguna Beach(Photos), and California State Route SR-1 Pacific Coast Highway scenic road-trip (selected photos coming soon :).

"Nothing occurs locally, nor globally in the universe, without mass-energy exchange/conversion and entropy production. It is crystal-clear (to me) that all confusions related to the far-reaching fundamental Laws of Thermodynamics, and especially the Second Law (Abstract-CiteSeerX), are due to the lack of their genuine and subtle comprehension." > Sadi Carnot's Reflections <*> Clausius Theory of Heat < Elusive Nature of Entropy

The miracles are until they are comprehended and understood. Perpetual Motion Machines (PMMs) Nature of Thermal and Mechanical Energy Transfer