Physicists discover 'apparent departure from the laws of thermodynamics'

Right, because this result has been observed in other systems (notably nanocluster beams in vacuum). Phys Rev B and Phys Rev Letters Are good places to look.

The key to understanding is that this system can NOT be treated as a canonical ensemble--it is properly treated as an evaporative ensemble, so the results are even more counter-intuitive than the micro canonical ensemble.