A wheel weighted with swinging mallets. A cylinder rotating in a sealed, water-filled container. A siphon that transfers liquid back and forth in a seemingly endless loop. These may sound like the ...

A radical theory predicting the existence of “time crystals” — perpetual motion objects that break the symmetry of time — is being put to the test. In February 2012, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist ...

A perpetual motion machine is (as the name implies) a machine that moves perpetually; it never stops. Ever. So if you created one today and set it going, it would keep on going until the Big Freeze.

On November 12th, 1717, clockmaker and mechanic Johann Bessler placed a 12-foot diameter, strange-looking wheel into a room. With a tender push, he started the contraption rotating, then confidently ...

I'm not sure why I keep getting emails about perpetual motion machines, but I do. They usually go something like this: "Thank you so much for your recent post on Wired regarding perpetual motion ...

Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. You've just tried to add this ...

Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well as featured reporting about current events through a science lens. “Nature of Reality” blogger ) Frank Wilczek has gone public ...

In February 2012, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek decided to go public with a strange and, he worried, somewhat embarrassing idea. Impossible as it seemed, Wilczek had developed an ...

Perpetual motion devices are either a gag, a scam, or as in the case of this particular toy that [Big Clive] bought on AliExpress, a rather fascinating demonstration of a contact-free inductive sensor ...

A wheel weighted with swinging mallets. A cylinder rotating in a sealed, water-filled container. A siphon that transfers liquid back in forth in a seemingly endless loop. These may sound like the ...