  Active matter systems exhibit rich emergent behavior due to constant
injection and dissipation of energy at the level of individual agents. Since
these systems are far from equilibrium, their dynamics and energetics cannot be
understood using the framework of equilibrium statistical mechanics. Recent
developments in stochastic thermodynamics extend classical concepts of work,
heat, and energy dissipation to fluctuating non-equilibrium systems. We use
recent advances in experiment and theory to study the non-thermal dissipation
of individual light-activated self-propelled colloidal particles. We focus on
characterizing the transition from thermal to non-thermal fluctuations and show
that energy dissipation rates on the order of $\sim k_BT/$s are measurable from
finite time series data.
