  Quantum systems are by their very nature fragile. The fundamental backaction
on a state due to quantum measurement notwithstanding, there is also in
practice often a destruction of the system itself due to the means of
measurement. This becomes acutely problematic when we wish to make measurements
of the same system at multiple times, or generate a large quantity of
measurement statistics. One approach to circumventing this is the use of
ancillary probes that couple to the system under investigation, and through
their interaction, enable properties of the primary system to be imprinted onto
and inferred from the ancillae. Here we highlight means by which continuous
variable quantum modes (qumodes) can be employed to probe the thermodynamics of
quantum systems in and out of equilibrium, including thermometry,
reconstruction of the partition function, and reversible and irreversible work.
We illustrate application of our results with the example of a spin-1/2 system
in a transverse field.
