Рубрика:
50
arguing that nothing travels faster than light, dismissed this as impossible "spooky
action at a distance."
2. The great man may have been wrong. A series of recent mind-bending laboratory
experiments has given scientists an unprecedented peek behind the quantum veil,
confirming that this realm is as mysterious as imagined.
3. Some key developments around one of quantum physics' weirdest notions: that two
particles can affect each other even when they are billions of miles apart.
4. Quantum physics is the study of the very small atoms, photons and other particles.
Unlike the cause-and-effect of our everyday physical world, subatomic particles defy
common sense and behave in wacky ways. That includes the fact that a photon,
which is a particle of light, exists in a haze of multiple behaviors. They spin in many
ways, such as "up" or "down," at the same time. Even trickier, it's only when you take
a peek by measuring it that the photon fixes into a particular state of spin.
5. Stranger still is entanglement. When two photons get "entangled" they behave like
a joint entity. Even when they're miles apart, if the spin of one particle is changed, the
spin of the other instantly changes, too. This direct influence of one object on another
distant one is called non-locality.
6. These peculiar properties have already been proven in a lab and tapped to improve
data encryption. They could also one day be used to build much faster computers.
Some philosophers see quantum phenomena as a sign of far greater unknown forces
at work and it bolsters their view that a spiritual dimension exists.
7. "We don't know how nature manages to produce spooky behavior," says Nicolas
Gisin, a scientist at Geneva University, who led a recent experiment demonstrating
action-at-a-distance. "But it's a fascinating time for physics because it can be
mastered and exploited."
8. Einstein refused to believe that a photon could be in all states at once and set out to
find an explanation for their seemingly odd behavior. God doesn't play dice with the
universe, he said at the time. Danish physicist Neils Bohr, a big proponent of
quantum uncertainty, shot back: "Quit telling God what to do."
9. Trying to poke holes in the notion of spooky action at a distance, Einstein and two
colleagues published a paper in 1935 that appeared to demonstrate the existence of
mysterious "hidden variables" and show that quantum theory was incomplete. In a
seminal 1964 paper, Irish physicist John Bell raised questions about the mathematical
validity of Einstein's work.
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