  The spin-boson model, often used in NMR and ESR physics, quantum optics and
spintronics, is considered in a solvable limit to model a spin one-half
particle interacting with a bosonic thermal bath. By applying external pulses
to a non-equilibrium initial state of the spin, work can be extracted from the
thermalized bath. It occurs on the timescale T_2 inherent to transversal
(`quantum') fluctuations. The work (partly) arises from heat given off by the
surrounding bath, while the spin entropy remains constant during a pulse. This
presents a violation of the Clausius inequality and the Thomson formulation of
the second law (cycles cost work) for the two-level system.
