  A detailed analysis of the adiabatic-piston problem reveals peculiar
dynamical features that challenge the general belief that isolated systems
necessarily reach a static equilibrium state. In particular, the fact that the
piston behaves like a perpetuum mobile, i.e., it never stops but keeps
wandering, undergoing sizable oscillations, around the position corresponding
to maximum entropy, has remarkable implications on the entropy variations of
the system and on the validity of the second law when dealing with systems of
mesoscopic dimensions.
