Over the voltage range typical of a neuronal action potential, at low voltages the pump exhibits Maxwell-demon behavior and high efficiency, while at high voltages the pump instead operates as a conventional engine and achieves higher turnover at the cost of lower efficiency.

We study sodium potassium pumps through the lens of bipartite stochastic thermodynamics, identifying and computing energy and information flows between the ATP-consuming and ion-transporting parts of these machines.

New preprint out today: “Information Thermodynamics of Cellular Ion Pumps”. Led by talented undergraduate student Julián Jiménez-Paz, and working with @davidasivak.bsky.social, we explore the thermodynamics of cellular ion pumps like the sodium-potassium pump.

arxiv.org/abs/2506.11248

We explore the free energy transduction strategies used by various evolved biological molecular machines in different contexts, and suggest possible design principles we might learn from them to help guide the engineering of synthetic nanomachines.

We focus on flows of energy and information between the components of biological machines, and highlight several possible engine configurations. One intriguing example: an “information engine” mode where one subsystem uses information to harvest heat energy from its environment.

Now out in @annualreviews.bsky.social of Physical Chemistry: @davidasivak.bsky.social and I review recent work studying flows of free energy into, out of, and within molecular machines. These nanoscale protein machines convert energy within cells of all living organisms with remarkable efficiencies.