The 'Molecular Octopus': A Little Brother of 'Schroedinger’s Cat'

For the first time, the quantum behaviour of molecules consisting of more than 400 atoms was demonstrated by quantum physicists based at the University of Vienna in collaboration with chemists from Basel and Delaware. The international and interdisciplinary team of scientists has set a new record in the verification of the quantum properties of nanoparticles. The use of specifically synthesized organic molecules consisting of complexes of up to 430 atoms enabled the researchers to demonstrate the quantum wave nature in mass and size regimes that hitherto had been experimentally inaccessible. These particles are comparable in size, mass and complexity to Insulin molecules and exhibit many features of classical objects. Nevertheless, in the current experiment the tailor-made molecules can exist in a superposition of clearly distinguishable positions and therefore -- similar to 'Schroedinger's cat' -- in a state that is excluded in classical physics.

source

Fascinating stuff I wish I understood it better. Makes me wonder what is real, what is possible?

reply to post by iforget

accomplished the synthesis of massive molecule complexes, which can survive the critical evaporation process.

The use of specifically synthesized organic molecules consisting of complexes of up to 430 atoms enabled the researchers to demonstrate the quantum wave nature in mass and size regimes that hitherto had been experimentally inaccessible.

Fascinating, and I'm with you, not sure of the ramifications of such developments, but let's hope it is a good thing and not a new Frankenmolecule that we may have to worry about getting in the mix of natural things.
Any speculation on how this may be utilized?

Peace,
spec

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


I wasn't looking at it from the point of view as this molecule being so special or dangerous in itself but that all molecules or objects may behave in the strange ways that we see things behave at the quantum level

it's a tough thing to wrap your mind around

reply to post by iforget

I wasn't looking at it from the point of view as this molecule being so special or dangerous

Yes yes, pardon my ATS supported cynicism! With all the gmo's, pharma and transgenic efforts these days, I am wary of such advances at times. I'm with you though, what exactly does this mean?

peace,
spec

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
reply to post by iforget

 

I wasn't looking at it from the point of view as this molecule being so special or dangerous

Yes yes, pardon my ATS supported cynicism! With all the gmo's, pharma and transgenic efforts these days, I am wary of such advances at times. I'm with you though, what exactly does this mean?

peace,
spec

It means that even a relatively complex organic molecule can exist as a wide range of possibilities. My own personal prejudice more than actual knowledge feels this lends credence to the many worlds theory.

Honestly I was hoping someone with more knowledge of this stuff would step in and help me out with trying to understand because i sure don't. So I'll just give this thread a little bump, shameless, I know but it is fascinating if tough to grok

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Hard to say, but one very interesting thing it could mean is more to suggest that we are not going to be bound by the physical restrictions of integrated circuits and binary calculation. Probably the most promising area utilizing quantum superposition is in there; a quantum computer has already been designed on paper and there are a few of the technological steps toward making it real already under development.

If you give me the next 12 hours, I can source the actual paper from Nature communications and decipher it for you. Currently in lab, so I don't have time to now.

reply to post by hypervalentiodine


That would be great when you do have the time. To make it a little easier, here's the link:

www.nature.com...

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, though no rush.

After reading the paper I realised that it has significantly less chemistry that I had hoped; although, I had not hoped for much. General rule of thumb states that, where the word 'quantum' appears in the title, no matter what the rest of the title presents, there will be only physics in the body of the paper. In any case, I will do my best with what limited knowledge I have of such things. I suspect this will require me to explain quantum chemistry to an extent, so I shall start with that.

The history of the matter takes considerable effort to discuss, so I think I will skip most of it and refer you firstly to this website: www.colorado.edu... It's brilliant and quite eloquent explanation of a rather complicated concept, so I would very much suggest reading it. It illustrates what is essentially the topic of the paper, that being the wave nature of matter. It's something of an odd thing to conceptualise, matter consisting of waves, but it does make sense when you tie it in with Einstein's seminal work on relativity. That is to say that if light can exhibit wave/particle duality and photons re essentially quantised packages of energy, then matter can also exhibit this dual property since energy and mass are really much for muchness. Anyway, read the website and it should all make some sense.

The reason the paper in question is, in some ways, amazing, is simple due to the sizes of the molecules they are observing. Typically, quantum events are seen only on very, very, ridiculously small scales. These molecules are huge. Does it contribute anything directly to the community as is? No. What is does in contribute to the pool of knowledge and open more doors on the path to technologies such as quantum computers. Reason being is that they have managed to find systems of monodisperse nanoparticles (i.e. a sample of some macromolecular compound, each individual molecule of which is roughly the same size of the next, that size ranging between 20-100 nm) whose quantum properties both exist and may be maintained. It will, however, be some time before the true affects of this will be really seen, if they are seen at all.

Hope that helps.

reply to post by iforget



Quantum Leap: Scientists Teleport Bits of Light

Our world is getting closer to "Star Trek" every day.

Scientists announced Wednesday they've been able to teleport special bits of light from one place to another -- "Beam me up, Scotty," in other words. The advance doesn't necessarily mean we'll ever be able to teleport people, unfortunately, but it does represent some pretty mind-bending physics.

Teleportation requires taking advantage of a quirk of quantum physics called entanglement. Two particles can be bonded so that even when separated by large distances, they communicate instantly, and what happens to one affects the other. (It's a situation so bizarre Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance.")

To teleport light, researchers led by Noriyuki Lee of the University of Tokyo had to destroy it in one place, and re-create it in another. This mirrors the teleportation process on "Star Trek," where transporters scan a person, atom by atom, and dismantle him, only to rebuild the person by configuring a different set of atoms in exactly the same pattern in another place.

Lee and his team accomplished this by linking a packet of light to one half of a pair of entangled particles. They then destroyed the light and the particle it was linked to, leaving only the lone particle of the entangled pair. The remaining particle retains the link with its entangled partner, though, including information about the light, which enabled the researchers to rebuild the light in the exact configuration at the other location.

This is pretty cool... I wonder how long its going to take before we can work up to the human level. At the very least smaller items, like food, fuel etc could go a long way to reshaping our world. From being able to transport finished goods directly to the destinations, to resupplying the space station...

I know its a ways off, but im optomistic anyways...

Who knows, maybe some intern at 2am will accidentally figure something out.

I found this part intresting

Schrödinger's cat

This actually isn’t the first time physicists have teleported particles or light in this way. What differentiates the new research is that this time they teleported something much more complicated. This teleported light wasn't just any light — it was in a special quantum state called a Schrödinger's-cat state.

Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment invented by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 to describe a truth about quantum mechanics: that some properties of particles are not decided until an outsider forces them to choose by measuring them.

Schrödinger envisioned a cat inside a box that contained a small amount of a radioactive substance. Within an hour, there would be a 50 percent chance the substance would decay, releasing poison into the box, and a 50 percent chance the substance would not decay and no poison would be released.

According to the rules of quantum mechanics, the cat is neither dead nor alive until the box is opened and an outside observer "measures" the situation. While the box remains closed, the whole system is suspended in a state of uncertainty where the cat is both dead and alive.

Schrödinger intended the story to sound a bit ridiculous — he was using it to highlight how bizarre the ideas of quantum mechanics would be if extended beyond particles to the macro world of everyday objects.

Nonetheless, the strange situation remains a fundamental part of the theory of quantum mechanics, and experiments verify that particles really do seem to exist in these suspended states of multiple possibilities until forced into one situation or another by measurements.

I remember hearing a few years ago that scientists had teleported a clump of atoms a few meters. As time goes on I assume this technology will be much more advanced. Who knows what's around the corner.

reply to post by Proctor11


Yeah and recently they have been able to teleport data up to 10km if I rmeber right.. Slowly but surely, we are pushing the envelope...