I thought I'd set down a few thoughts about what I will be trying to accomplish at Bryght. 

The analogy came to me while trying to write a bio for the Bryght Team page. I described myself as a stand-in for Maxwell's demon, and since this particular demon has not as far as I know made an appearance on Buffy, I feel obligated to explain. 

The second law of thermodynamics implies, roughly speaking, that the disorder in the universe increases over time. James Clerk Maxwell, the famous Scottish physicist, proposed a thought experiment which he claimed refuted this second law. The setup is this: a tiny demon stands at a doorway connecting two chambers A and B which initially are filled with gas at the same temperature and pressure (i.e., the average speed of molecules in A is the same as the average speed of the molecules in B). The demon observes the molecules flying about and bouncing off of the door, and opens the door to allow fast-moving molecules to pass through to from A to B, and to allow slow-moving molecules to pass through from B to A. In this way, over time, the average speed of molecules in B will increase, that is, B will get hotter, while A cools off. Maxwell claimed that all of this happened 'without any work being done on or by the system', which violates the second law. 

This claim generated much debate; it is now accepted that the Maxwell's assumptions about the demon doing no actual work are false. However, the picture of the little demon acting as a gatekeeper to increase the order of the system over time is compelling. I hope that I will be able to gate some of the incredible energy and talent flying around at Bryght, and channel it to yield maximum gains. First step: measure the speed of these crazy molecules whipping around everywhere. Wish me luck!