First Visible, Observable Workings Of The Quantum World, page 1

firstly, i don't pretend to have any concept of quantum science, or frankly, much beyond what would appear nightly on access hollywood, but i'm interested and curious, so i attempt to share:

this is a report of the first evidence of quantum effects, typical to the microscopic world, but this time, in fact, observable by the naked eye.

we all know schrodinger's cat and the famous double-slit experiment that popularly defines the seeming obtuseness of the quantum world by having varying outcomes depending not on variables within the experiment's systematics, but only by the nature that the experiment, in and of itself, is being observed.

in other words, if the experiment is being observed, x happens. otherwise, given that everything else is identical, x happens, but also, simultaneously y happens (this is called "superposition").

no one knows why there could be varying results based only on whether or not the experiment is being observed …. though there are many theories including the "paranormal" effect of consciousness watching the experiment or physical effects from physical entities (i.e., perhaps various permutations from a physical body like a human being would have micro-subtle effects … though this is generally overruled by the fact that non-human devices can be used to record experimental results (but maybe they, too, also have micro effects?).

this particular experiment, in my humble analysis, boils down to a metal strip that is connected to a quantum electric circuit for the purpose of amplifying the circuit's state.

it would not be abnormal for a micro-sized circuit to behave in a quantum fashion. but to be able to magnify whatever the reaction of the circuit would be by way of the metallic strip would allow a "macro" observance of "quantamness." and, indeed, that is what happened: the rate at which the metallic strip corresponded to either "oscillating" or "not oscillating" matched the expected results were it to be a quantum experiment.

in other words, the metallic strip, representing the quantum circuit, did not oscillate or did not NOT oscillate. it varied. and the rate at which it varied matches the rates at which similar experiments will vary when observing quantum phenomena.

Quantum mechanics provides a highly accurate description of a wide variety of physical systems. However, a demonstration that quantum mechanics applies equally to macroscopic mechanical systems has been a long-standing challenge, hindered by the difficulty of cooling a mechanical mode to its quantum ground state. The temperatures required are typically far below those attainable with standard cryogenic methods, so significant effort has been devoted to developing alternative cooling techniques. Once in the ground state, quantum-limited measurements must then be demonstrated. Here, using conventional cryogenic refrigeration, we show that we can cool a mechanical mode to its quantum ground state by using a microwave-frequency mechanical oscillator—a ‘quantum drum’—coupled to a quantum bit, which is used to measure the quantum state of the resonator. We further show that we can controllably create single quantum excitations (phonons) in the resonator, thus taking the first steps to complete quantum control of a mechanical system.

First quantum effects seen in visible object
UCSB Physicists Show Theory of Quantum Mechanics Applies to the Motion of Large Objects
Scientists see first quantum effects in visible object

[edit on 3/21/2010 by Hadrian]