Category Archives: Quantum Physics

The universe, as seen through the lens of quantum mechanics, is a noisy, crackling space where particles blink constantly in and out of existence, creating a background of quantum noise whose effects are normally far too subtle to detect in everyday objects.

Now for the first time, a team led by researchers at MIT LIGO Laboratory has measured the effects of quantum fluctuations on objects at the human scale. In a paper published today in Nature, the researchers report observing that quantum fluctuations, tiny as they may be, can nonetheless kick an object as large as the 40-kilogram mirrors of the U.S. National Science Foundations Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), causing them to move by a tiny degree, which the team was able to measure.

It turns out the quantum noise in LIGOs detectors is enough to move the large mirrors by 10-20 meters a displacement that was predicted by quantum mechanics for an object of this size, but that had never before been measured.

A hydrogen atom is 10-10 meters, so this displacement of the mirrors is to a hydrogen atom what a hydrogen atom is to us and we measured that, says Lee McCuller, a research scientist at MITs Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

The researchers used a special instrument that they designed, called a quantum squeezer, to manipulate the detectors quantum noise and reduce its kicks to the mirrors, in a way that could ultimately improve LIGOs sensitivity in detecting gravitational waves, explains Haocun Yu, a physics graduate student at MIT.

Whats special about this experiment is weve seen quantum effects on something as large as a human, says Nergis Mavalvala, the Marble Professor and associate head of the physics department at MIT. We too, every nanosecond of our existence, are being kicked around, buffeted by these quantum fluctuations. Its just that the jitter of our existence, our thermal energy, is too large for these quantum vacuum fluctuations to affect our motion measurably. With LIGOs mirrors, weve done all this work to isolate them from thermally driven motion and other forces, so that they are now still enough to be kicked around by quantum fluctuations and this spooky popcorn of the universe.

Yu, Mavalvala, and McCuller are co-authors of the new paper, along with graduate student Maggie Tse and Principal Research Scientist Lisa Barsotti at MIT, along with other members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

A quantum kick

LIGO is designed to detect gravitational waves arriving at the Earth from cataclysmic sources millions to billions of light years away. It comprises twin detectors, one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. Each detector is an L-shaped interferometer made up of two 4-kilometer-long tunnels, at the end of which hangs a 40-kilogram mirror.

To detect a gravitational wave, a laser located at the input of the LIGO interferometer sends a beam of light down each tunnel of the detector, where it reflects off the mirror at the far end, to arrive back at its starting point. In the absence of a gravitational wave, the lasers should return at the same exact time. If a gravitational wave passes through, it would briefly disturb the position of the mirrors, and therefore the arrival times of the lasers.

Much has been done to shield the interferometers from external noise, so that the detectors have a better chance of picking out the exceedingly subtle disturbances created by an incoming gravitational wave.

Mavalvala and her colleagues wondered whether LIGO might also be sensitive enough that the instrument might even feel subtler effects, such as quantum fluctuations within the interferometer itself, and specifically, quantum noise generated among the photons in LIGOs laser.

This quantum fluctuation in the laser light can cause a radiation pressure that can actually kick an object, McCuller adds. The object in our case is a 40-kilogram mirror, which is a billion times heavier than the nanoscale objects that other groups have measured this quantum effect in.

Noise squeezer

To see whether they could measure the motion of LIGOs massive mirrors in response to tiny quantum fluctuations, the team used an instrument they recently built as an add-on to the interferometers, which they call a quantum squeezer. With the squeezer, scientists can tune the properties of the quantum noise within LIGOs interferometer.

The team first measured the total noise within LIGOs interferometers, including the background quantum noise, as well as classical noise, or disturbances generated from normal, everyday vibrations. They then turned the squeezer on and set it to a specific state that altered the properties of quantum noise specifically. They were able to then subtract the classical noise during data analysis, to isolate the purely quantum noise in the interferometer. As the detector constantly monitors the displacement of the mirrors to any incoming noise, the researchers were able to observe that the quantum noise alone was enough to displace the mirrors, by 10-20 meter.

Mavalvala notes that the measurement lines up exactly with what quantum mechanics predicts. But still its remarkable to see it be confirmed in something so big, she says.

Going a step further, the team wondered whether they could manipulate the quantum squeezer to reduce the quantum noise within the interferometer. The squeezer is designed such that when it set to a particular state, it squeezes certain properties of the quantum noise, in this case, phase and amplitude. Phase fluctuations can be thought of as arising from the quantum uncertainty in the light's travel time, while amplitude fluctuations impart quantum kicks to the mirror surface.

We think of the quantum noise as distributed along different axes, and we try to reduce the noise in some specific aspect, Yu says.

When the squeezer is set to a certain state, it can for example squeeze, or narrow the uncertainty in phase, while simultaneously distending, or increasing the uncertainty in amplitude. Squeezing the quantum noise at different angles would produce different ratios of phase and amplitude noise within LIGOs detectors.

The group wondered whether changing the angle of this squeezing would create quantum correlations between LIGOs lasers and its mirrors, in a way that they could also measure. Testing their idea, the team set the squeezer to 12 different angles and found that, indeed, they could measure correlations between the various distributions of quantum noise in the laser and the motion of the mirrors.

Through these quantum correlations, the team was able to squeeze the quantum noise, and the resulting mirror displacement, down to 70 percent its normal level. This measurement, incidentally, is below whats called the standard quantum limit, which, in quantum mechanics, states that a given number of photons, or, in LIGOs case, a certain level of laser power, is expected to generate a certain minimum of quantum fluctuations that would generate a specific kick to any object in their path.

By using squeezed light to reduce the quantum noise in the LIGO measurement, the team has made a measurement more precise than the standard quantum limit, reducing that noise in a way that will ultimately help LIGO to detect fainter, more distant sources of gravitational waves.

This research was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

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Quantum fluctuations can jiggle objects on the human scale - MIT News

Life is complicated. Right now, we face so many challenges. Our perceived ability to control our world continues to slip through our fingers every day. But we are still designed for joy and for community. And we are agile enough to survive this. Were incredibly creative and adaptable. And though we sometimes use that adaptability and agility to further dig ourselves into a hole, we, for the most part, usually take two steps forward for every one step back. The long game is to our advantage. Have courage.

Perhaps, it would be worthwhile to consider that there is more to us than what we appear. The greater consciousness of humanity meaning what the majority of us are thinking or praying about at any one given time has been shown to play a part in how things unfold, including the ways that appear to be beyond our ability to intervene. Mysteriousness. Is consciousness at work in places we dont readily assume? Does our consciousness affect things? Things like the planet, perhaps? Were made of the exact same materials. Just how deeply does our divine spark reach? Just what might we be able to affect by all of us collectively directing our conscious thought toward the same idea?

While several different faiths have a similar idea to this, in Christianity, Jesus is quoted as saying, When two or more gather in my name, I am in the midst of them. Its an interesting statement. And Ive heard a few interpretations for it, including its usage in prayerful conflict mediation or to align its references to the Old Testament law recommending two to three witnesses in conflict resolution. Interesting to me that both of these explanations involve the repairing of relationship.

But there is perhaps a more esoteric thought to have about why it might be that if at least two or more gather together in the spirit of the same idea, surprising things can occur. It may be for the same reason that its good Old Testament advice to have two to three witnesses on hand when trying to resolve conflict. Theyre not just there to witness; they are there to add their consciousness to the proceedings.

In 1993, a national group of trained meditators created an experiment with the intention to decrease the crime rate in Washington, D.C. They predicted theyd be able to reduce it by over 20% and prepared to catalog the data empirically. Before the project began, the chief of police said the only thing that would create a 20% drop in crime would be 20 inches of snow. The study occurred in summer of that year, but it didnt snow. The crime rate began to drop immediately after the project began and continued to drop steadily until the end of it. Crime went down 23.3% below the prediction for that period of the year. Look that experiment up for yourself. Was consciousness there? If so, what does it imply about our capacity to affect physical reality on the level of our consciousness? What did those meditators affect and how?

This points to an idea that when a group of people choose to direct their thoughts toward a particular idea or reality or solution, stuff happens. Just how much is our consciousness capable of doing?

Lets then consider for a moment what consciousness itself might be. The primary definition of the word consciousness says only that its about our awareness of our own surroundings that we know a tree is over there and a house is over there and we know our standing in between them is, by definition, consciousness. The origins for the word conscious, though, are about special knowledge, really. Holders of a secret. And also an inner awareness of self, not just our surrounding environment. In the late 16th century, though, the word conscious came to mean an awareness of our own personal wrongdoing. In other words, self-conscious. It meant shame.

But we can also use the word consciousness to describe the part of ourselves that is larger than our physical bodies. The part of ourselves that is plugged into the divine. The part that is permanent and eternal and, true to the contemporary definition, utterly aware of its surroundings and its place within the universe. The part that is aware and self-aware but leaves the shame part to us humans. Shame is one of many classrooms of the human experience. Its appropriateness lies in the overcoming of it.

Back to consciousness, though. Does our consciousness have physics? In other words, are there rules to it? If we were smart enough, could we measure it? Could we invent a device to see consciousness? If we did, what would we conclude from empirically proving our consciousness exists? What might it change in us and how we more deliberately use consciousness as a tool of advancement?

I believe that when two or more gather in the name of something greater than themselves, magic happens. I think when a certain saturation point of our individual minds gathers together around a single thought, the thought itself can hear it. On the quantum-physics level, it seems that when we gather, we have a greater capacity to collapse a waveform around a particular potential into the reality we ultimately experience. I think I sounded very fancy there.

But thats the quantum physics way of saying that our expectations are often realized on the quantum level where our thought is provable to affect reality. You can look that up, too. I think whatever it is that makes that happen we could safely refer to as consciousness.

It could be thought of as a magic wand, of a sort. One that were not particularly sure how it works, or just how much power it has. And for which we probably should get a little bit of education. But its a power nonetheless. And one that we own for ourselves to do with as we wish.

Make an assumption that how you feel and the thoughts you project manage to accomplish something beyond your understanding. Create communities of those who wish to conduct their thoughts in the same direction with you for mutual benefit.

May your divine spark, along with the divine sparks of others, together light a firestorm of compassion and resolution for our world.

Wil Darcangelo, M.Div., is the minister at First Parish UU Church of Fitchburg and of First Church of Christ, Unitarian, in Lancaster, and producer of The UU Virtual Church of Fitchburg and Lancaster on YouTube. Email wildarcangelo@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @wildarcangelo. His blog, Hopeful Thinking, can be found at http://www.hopefulthinkingworld.blogspot.com.

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Try to consciously change the world it might just work - Sentinel & Enterprise

Scientists have measured the faster-than-lightning speed of a nuclear reaction using a supercomputer to model and compare hundreds of different reactions that take just a billionth of a trillionth of a second.

In Physical Review Letters, the researchers describe using fully microscopic approaches to observe and measure collisions of different kinds of nuclei. Their goal: quantify the energy and time these exchanges take in order to better understand how they affect quantum phenomena like dissipation, which is how, and how much, energy leaves a reaction.

The scientists modeled 13 pairs of nuclei and studied 600 kinds of interactions.

Since part of quantum mechanics involves how the physical interactions of particles cause them to behave erratically or otherwise, the relative magnitude of nuclear reactions can help researchers categorize the reactions by energy required and other parameters based on that timing. They found a tenfold difference in timea zeptosecond versus 20 zeptoseconds, basicallybetween larger nuclear exchanges and smaller motions.

Colliding the pairs of nuclei made them break apart in a realistic way, and the size of the pieces (fragments) determined the speed and magnitude of the subsequent interaction. This is one reason the time frames were so broadly distributed: Sometimes what happened was just a tiny nick, and sometimes the two nuclei collided head on and exchanged much larger amounts of particulate.

First, the protons and neutrons swap between the newly-united fragments, in order to equalise their neutron-to-proton ratio. Known as charge equilibration, the calculations showed this is the fastest process, taking only one zeptosecond, Cosmos explains.

Mass equilibration, with much more flow and exchange, took 20 times longer. And while these times varied greatly between different nuclear processes, the time didnt vary by which element was at play. Any combination of element nuclei took the same time for the same process.

A project at Vienna University of Technology is using a similar methodology, combining an electron microscope with a supercomputer molecule simulation in order to understand whats happening in a different kind of reaction: surface wear on metals. Both computer simulations involve powerful modeling of complex processes that are too tiny for scientists to meaningfully examine in realtime.

Instead of modeling individual atoms colliding, this simulation must imagine an entire surface in enough molecular detail to model wear. To make a simulation under 100 nanometers across takes weeks for the supercomputer to compile and run.

The nucleus experiment involves simulations of just two nuclei at a time in different combinations and dynamics, but the level of detail and time and energy measurement still requires massive computing power. Modeling realistic physics of how nuclei collide and break apart requires extensive programming and particles in the computer graphics sense.

Its like a very realistic, high-fidelity computer animationbut the results could inform the next generation of nuclear research.

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Want to Know the Speed of a Complex Nuclear Reaction? - Popular Mechanics

LONDON, United Kingdom In my 35-year experience of fashion, The Show has always been the thing. Every-thing, in fact, from a small but perfectly formed moment to a sweeping spectacle for the ages. It was my outsiders way in, equal parts invitation, inspiration and celebration. It was also the most vital distillation of a designers point of view, of the story of a season, of fashions every-so-often collision with the zeitgeist.

But despite the announcement of European fashion weeks this September, The Show, at least for the moment and as I have known and loved it, is dead, one more casualty of the pandemic that promises chaos-cum-change to established orders everywhere. A growing constituency will not mourn it. In a world confronted by social, economic, health and climate crises, The Show has been pilloried as another drain on precious resources, a curio, an irrelevance even. Holding that thought, lockdown has left me who, through a happy accident rather than grand design, has spent more than half his life sitting through thousands upon thousands of shows, filming some, writing about others to revel in my own irrelevance. And in that twilight state, Ive been brooding on my own personal history with The Show. All forms of human life were there: the beautiful, the hideous, the reactionary, the revolutionary, the assured, the ambiguous, the ass-paralysing.

Diana Vreeland, the enduring template of the fashion editor, memorably wrote about a Balenciaga presentation in the early 60s where everyone was going up in foam and thunder. Twenty-five years later, I saw Vreeland at a Geoffrey Beene show in the Plaza Hotel in New York. If it wasnt exactly foam and thunder, it was at least a cloudburst of emotion that swept the audience. The first time I saw tears, and I marvelled at such a reaction. Eventually, I too would feel similarly pricked, when the sound and vision would nudge me into overload, like the climax of a favourite film, or the last plangent chords of the soundtrack of my life.

I wanted to revisit these moments, review them anew, so thats what Im going to do over the next while, one every Friday, when I would once have been sitting by runways in the real world. I thought Id start at the beginning, with Yves Saint Laurents haute couture collection for Spring 1988, the first show I ever covered in Paris. Then I think I will follow a pretty random and entirely personal selection, some chosen because they have a deep and meaningful social resonance (a Gaultier, a McQueen, a Rick Owens), others because they evoke a particularly happy memory (Galliano, say, or Mugler, or Dries Van Noten). Its an evolutionary spectrum. Hard to fathom now that youd once wait months to see any kind of visual record of the season youd just sat through, and then it would be a page of thumbnails in one of those hefty collezione things out of Italy. A show would have to live in memory (or in the sketches or scribbles in a notebook) in a way that has since been thoroughly supplanted by digitalis, and the overwhelming demands of commerce and as-it-happens content creation.

A fashion show can be something so profoundly ceremonial that it attains the peculiar power of an occult ritual.

I can appreciate why there are people who feel the arc has been devolutionary, rather than evolutionary, but Im not one of those used-to-be-better types. True, the question Ive been asked more than any other is how Ive managed to sustain my interest over such a long stretch of time. Also true, fashion isnt as infinite as quantum physics. Still, I have hardly ever been bored by The Show: tested, yes, but in half an hour, Ill be somewhere else, and a world away. I cant make art or movies or music and Im fascinated by people who can, even when what they produce is dreadful. Same with fashion. Theyre all mysteries Ive never felt compelled to solve. Who needs quantum physics when infinite patience is your most virtuous self?

So, I come to praise The Show, not to bury it. Anyway, rumours of its death are clearly exaggerated. The coming weeks will see a wave of digital simulacra, and there is hubbub about physical get-togethers in September, Second Wave willing. So, consider present circumstances a state of suspended animation, like a beauty thats sleeping. I do know this: when it wakes, it will be a very different creature. For instance, my friend Jamie in New York is working with a company called Sensorium, who are trying to perfect the virtual fashion show with a multi-pronged approach that embraces traditional video and stills, 3D motion capture and 3D photogrammetry. They talk about transcending the physical runway I guess they have to, dont they? but intriguingly, they also emphasise presence, which I take to mean the feeling of actually being somewhere. VRs genuine ability to embed you in an alternate reality was devastatingly brought home to me by Alejandro Gonzlez Irritus Carne y Arena, a short film following a group of migrants as they cross the Mexican border into the US. The sensation of sheer physical terror was jolting.

The idea of bringing a similarly potent degree of immersive emotional engagement to bear on a VR alternative to the familiar show format obviously suggests all sorts of dazzling technical possibilities. But, in my role as booster or apologist or nostalgist, Ill say that the primal element that connects the wealth of shows Ive seen over the years is the focused physicality of an audience of people gathered together in a theatre, a museum, a ballroom, a garden, an underground carpark, an abandoned coal mine or a cave to take part in something so profoundly ceremonial that it can, at its pinnacle, attain the peculiar power of an occult ritual. And you dont need a budget of millions to spark this effect. Two words: Helmut Lang. I chose his last ever show because, though no one knew it at the time, it had the wonderful feeling of heading somewhere new. Which is exactly what Helmut did, though he left fashion behind to do it. So, hindsight inevitably colours my re-visit.

I did toy with the idea of projecting myself back into the past, into the purity of seeing the thing for the first time, but that required more of a performance than Im capable of, to un-see everything thats happened since. Besides, hindsight is hella fun. Ive always wanted to know what happened next: read the last page, skip to the last episode, and then track back, fore-armed with the future. But what does happen next for The Show? By the time we can get bums on seats again, will fashion have ceremonialised another way to present itself? Or to inject a pragmatic note of the utilitarian to generate that all-important content? After all, there is an industry that needs servicing.

Time will tell. For the moment, Im just going to have to poke around in this grab-bag of golden oldies and maybe someone else will winkle out ways in which the past can seed a glorious future. Im only happy and grateful I was there to see it.

Click here to read Tim Blanks' first review in the TopFashion Shows of All Time series.

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The Death of Fashion Shows? Not So Fast. | Tim's Take | BoF - The Business of Fashion

How did environmental conditions and climate change influence early human evolution? Can protein engineering be harnessed to block the virus that causes COVID-19? How do quantum mechanics affect biological functions, and how do our memory and learning work on a cellular level in the brain?

These are some of the big questions that will be explored by researchers at the University of Toronto and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) as part of a new strategic partnership that will allow faculty and students from the two institutions to combine resources to carry out high-impact research.

Each year, the University of Toronto Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research and Innovation Alliance will select projects to receive funding of $150,000 a year for up to four years, with each research group comprising faculty drawn from both universities and covering a range of disciplines. The alliance will also occasionally provide one-time seed funding to help get promising projects off the ground.

Launched with endowed funding of $5.9 million from the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University and the family of Roz and Ralph Halbert, the alliance also aims to eventually construct an innovation pipeline between U of T and HUJI to connect the entrepreneurship ecosystems in Toronto and Jerusalem and provide student entrepreneurs with exposure to each others universities and markets.

[HUJIs] mandate with respect to research is very closely aligned to U of Ts in terms of leading the world in a variety of areas, and thats always the kind of partner were looking for, said Alex Mihailidis, U of Ts associate vice-president of international partnerships and a professor in the Faculty of Medicine's department of occupational science and occupational therapy, as well as the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering.

We both recognize that international collaborations strengthen the research within each university, and thats why were excited to partner with them.

He added that the timing of the partnership speaks to U of Ts commitment to forge ahead with research partnerships despite the challenges of working and collaborating amid the pandemic.

From an international partnerships perspective, its business as usual, said Mihailidis, who is also cross-appointed to the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science. Weve not shut anything down and weve not stopped collaborations. Were going full-speed ahead its looking a bit different, but we are still moving ahead both with existing and new partners.

Both researchersdeveloped an interest in the Kalahari Chazan as an archeologist analyzing early evidence of human activity and Matmon as a geologist carrying out dating techniques to study the evolution of the landscape and theyre now looking to combine their perspectives.

The next phase of work with this funding is to expand Aris geological work, particularly looking for evidence of wet environments, so we can try and understand when there was a shift to modern arid conditions, said Chazan. At the same time, Ill be working in the town of Kathu in South Africa, which is a major mining area today, and were looking at some very large sites and trying to understand what the conditions were when this place supported large groups of people.

So its a really new area of study that combines geological perspectives on how the landscape and hydrology evolved with an archeological perspective which is asking in more narrowly focused locations what the human behaviour was and what was drawing people to these sites.

Oron Shagrir, vice-president for international affairs at HUJI, said the partnership brings together the two leading universities in Israel and Canada, and that the call for research proposals resulted in several exciting submissions.

In these challenging and unprecedented times for societies and universities alike, international partnerships are an invaluable source of support and inspiration, said Shagrir, a professor of philosophy and cognitive science. They are not only an important asset and tool in advancing universities on all levels, but also serve as a valuable platform to promote and support collaborative research projects.

Chazan points to his project as an example of how the two universities can combine their respective strengths.

At U of T, were strong in terms of field archeology and geophysics, he said. Hebrew University is particularly strong in looking at the evolution of landforms over the period of the last two to five million years ... [and] that requires some very specialized labs.

Among the labs that Chazan and his students will have access to is a high-tech facility that blocks out any modern magnetic signals to precisely study fluctuations in the earths magnetic field. Having access to that is a major asset for the project and for our students, who get to learn how to operate in that kind of system, said Chazan.

Meanwhile, Sachdev Sidhu, a professor appointed to U of Ts Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, the department of molecular genetics and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, will be working with Professor Julia Shifman of HUJIs Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Science to study how the fast-growing fields of protein engineering and design can be leveraged to develop treatments for diseases, including COVID-19.

Their project will use insights gained from past outbreaks of coronaviruses to understand the functions of the proteins that power SARS-CoV-2 the virus that causes COVID-19 and to develop molecules with the potential to disarm the virus and pave the way to a potential cure.

Additionally, the U of T HUJI Research and Innovation Alliance is providing $5,000 in seed funding to two projects.

The first will see Professor Dvira Segal of U of Ts departments of chemistry and physics and Professor Roi Baer of HUJIs Fritz Haber Research Center for Molecular Dynamics and Institute of Chemistry explore the role of quantum processes in natural and engineered quantum systems.

The second aims to better understand how the brain acquires and stores information in order to help prevent and treat debilitating memory and learning disorders. The principal investigators are Associate Professors Sheena Josselyn and Paul Frankland of the department of physiology in U of Ts Faculty of Medicine, Professor Melanie Woodin of the department of cell and systems biology and HUJI scholars Adi Mizrahi, Ami Citri and Inbal Goshen.

Ronald Appleby, a U of T alumnus and campaign chair at the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, said the research efforts made possible by the partnership speak to the two universities shared commitment to advancing interdisciplinary teams of researchers and students working on translational research, bolstered by mutual respect and friendship.

The attention paid to research in engineering and medicine, the sciences, the social sciences, humanities, and law reflects our mutual interest in creating novel solutions for some of the most pressing current issues, Appleby said.

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U of T and Hebrew University of Jerusalem launch research and innovation partnership - News@UofT

At the base of modern physics is something called quantum theory. It explains the behavior of energy and matter on different atomic levels - atomic and subatomic. Quantum theory encompasses the working of the realms of physics commonly referred to as quantum physics and quantum mechanics and it offers up a rather interesting look into the foundations of modern physics.

Quantum theory was first presented to the general public in the year 1900, by a physicist named Max Planck. He presented the theory to the German Physical Society, specifically by presenting the results of an experiment he had done looking into the color of radiation from glowing bodies (not human bodies, physical bodies).

In the experiment, he found that if he assumed that energy existed in individual units similar to matter, that he would find the answer to the original question posed in his experiment. Thinking of energy in this way was new and allowed the energy to be easily quantified. These units of energy that he was able to quantify were named quanta by Planck in his writings about the experiment and subsequent mathematical equations.

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The equation that formed the beginnings of quantum theory demonstrated that at certain temperature levels, the energy that was let off from a glowing body would exist in different areas of the spectrum of color, or wavelength. Planck initially imagined that his discovery of quanta would set in motion the creation of a new theory, but what actually ended up happening was that it completely rewrote humanity's understanding of the laws of nature.

In 1918, Planck won the Nobel Prize for his discovery and research on quanta. It is important to note though, that while Planck's research began the foundation of modern quantum theory, tens to hundreds of other scientists worked in the years prior to set Planck up to make this discovery just at the point that he did. Taking a closer look at the timeline, we can see how the theory progressed after the discovery.

1900: Planck makes the initial discovery, or rather assumption, that energy was made of units called quanta.

1905: Albert Einstein theorizes that energy and radiation could be quantified in the same way that Planck had theorized of quanta.

1924:Louis de Brogliefirst proposed that there was no difference between energy and particles in his theory of wave-particle duality, also demonstrated in the famous double-slit experiment.

1927: A scientist by the name of Werner Heisenberg theorized that the measurement of two complementary values at the same time, such as the position and momentum of a given subatomic particle, would be impossible. This stands starkly in contrast to traditional physics and became known as the uncertainty principle.

Now that we've taken a closer look at the timeline of quantum theory development, let's take a closer look at who exactly Max Planck was.

Born in April of 1858, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (quite the name) was a theoretical physicist who was the originator of quantum theory, which, as we've discussed, afforded him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. During his lifetime he made major contributions to the field of theoretical physics but the quantum theory remains his largest accomplishment.

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Quantum theory at the hands of Planck completely revolutionized our understanding and conceptualization of quantum particles and processes. It could be equated in gravity of the theory of Alber Einstein's theory of relativity that changed our understanding of space and time.

Both quantum theory and the theory of relativity exemplify the foundations of all of the 1900s physics, forcing researchers to rethink how they approach the world around them.

Planck passed away at the age of 89 years-old in 1947 in Germany.

The main methods of interpreting quantum theory are known as the Copenhagen interpretation and the many-worlds theory. The Copenhagen theory proposes that a particle is whatever it is measured to be. In other words, if you measure a particle as a wave, it's a wave. However, it also states that you can't assume that it has any specific properties or that it exists until you measure it. It's an off-the-cuff way of insisting that physical reality doesn't actually exist until you observe it. This leads way to the idea of superposition, which means that any given particle or object can be in any number of potential places at once during the period that we don't know its position, or aren't observing it.

The famous thought experiment of Schrodinger's Cat is the perfect exemplification of this interpretation of the quantum theory.

The many-worlds theory or multiverse theory. This states that as soon as the potential for an object to exist occurs, the universe splits into a series of parallel universes where both states of that object exist. This theory is the basis of TV shows like Rick and Morty or other popular science fiction stories, but at the end of the day, it's a very real interpretation of the quantum theory.

Both Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman expressed that they preferred the multiverse theory style of interpretation.

At the end of the day, quantum theory and Planck's research have drastically influenced the work of physicists and researchers over the last 100 years. The implications of quantum theory can be a little mind-boggling though, even causing Planck himself to balk at them during his time. The foundational principles of the theory, however, continue to be repeated and proven through subsequent experimentation. Physics in many ways still will be fleshed out in the next century, but its foundation of quantum theory laid by Max Planck is likely here to stay.

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Max Planck Created Quantum Theory and Laid a New Foundation for Physics - Interesting Engineering

Driving Route 66 requires no specialized training. Steering wheel, pedals, lights, mirror controls they are all familiar concepts, each one a well-established automobile technology. If youve driven one car, youve more or less driven them all. Call it drivers intuition.

However, despite the publics growing awareness of quantum technology, a corresponding intuition is rare, even among experts in the field. With quantum intuition, one could differentiate between quantum and classical worlds at the most basic level without deliberation.

For most of us, stuck with our classical minds, quantum intuition is difficult due to the counterintuitive nature of the quantum world. Concepts like entanglement and superposition can be challenging, since there is no obvious mapping of the bizarre quantum world to everyday life.

Developing our quantum minds

Most of us have technological intuition, like the ability to drive an unfamiliar car or use a new computer program. Unhindered by philosophical obstacles, it allows children to program a TV remote or master a smartphone much faster than their parents. Thats because kids today have been born and raised surrounded by technology built upon classical computers and have developed an intuition for them.

With quantum computers only now emerging, such early development is lacking. Consider, for example, light. While familiar in the macroscopic world, its quantum properties are odd. Sometimes it behaves like a wave, sometimes like a particle. Think of quantum particles that can pass, or tunnel, through energy barriers. Or imagine entangled particles, which influence each other even if separated by a large distance. There are also mind-boggling interpretations of quantum mechanics that drive ongoing and vigorous debates among specialists, such as theories of multiple universes or theories in which the future influences the past.

The legendary spookiness of quantum mechanics which so bothered Albert Einstein is born from similar examples, and the frustrations expressed by Einstein, Richard Feynman or Erwin Schrdinger are as painful today as they were a century ago.

As the quantum technological revolution changes the world, it must first move out from laboratories and into proverbial garages. To get there requires a quantum education at an early stage, an effort to tunnel through the barrier of quantum weirdness and kick-start a quantum generation of young people who can consider entanglement without being spooked, like we are, and instead set up those garages and launch completely new approaches to quantum technology.

From quantum intuition to quantum workforce

We are not yet ready for that transition. Mastering intuition requires a solid quantum education, one that crosses disciplines and fuses physics, computer science, engineering, mathematics and materials research in nearly equal parts.

Such an education must include focused training at the elementary, middle and high school levels, as well as informal education at museums and unconventional approaches like merging art into quantum education.

How do we get there? With much to do, the United States is not sitting idle. For example, several first steps emerged from a recent collaborative effort from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy that brought together cross-disciplinary specialists to develop core resources for inspiring quantum information science learners. One outcome, a necessary minimum list of nine key concepts with narratives developed by subject-matter experts, is helping shape the nations approach to early education, tackling such concepts as qubits, quantum computers and entanglement, just to name a few.

Industry is also getting involved. As students further develop their careers, the convergent efforts of industry, academia and government will be vital, as will early introductions to industrial settings. One initial effort, known as the TRIPLETS program, was initiated by NSF and co-sponsored by industrial partners such as IBM, Google, Raytheon, Montana Instruments and many others, including several Department of Energy National Laboratories. This approach allows students to collaborate with both an industrial advisor and an academic investigator, forming a triplet that introduces fundamental research and industrial culture well before graduation.

A continuing national investment

Fundamental research generates high quality educational experiences, which will lead to quantum intuition, and this cultural and technological shift requires investment.

The ambitious all-of-government approach known as Industries of the Future includes a plan to increase federal investments in five key industries to $10 billion per year by fiscal year 2025. In addition to quantum information science, the targeted industries include artificial intelligence, 5G technologies and advanced communications, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing, with quantum technologies further integrating across the other fields.

This plan builds upon the National Quantum Initiative Act, established in 2018, with both efforts calling for the development of a future quantum workforce and a strong focus on education.

However, implementation will require educators, academics, industry, and government agencies working together to create the policies and practices that enable young people today to develop the quantum intuition needed for the future.

Armed with intuition, the quantum generation will come.

Tomasz Durakiewicz is program director for Condensed Matter Physics at the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research, and since February 2019 has served as staff associate, Office of the Assistant Director, in the agency's Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Durakiewicz has co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, more than 210 conference abstracts and six patents, and he has presented more than 60 invited talks. For more than a decade prior to his service at NSF, Durakiewicz was a materials researcher at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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Do we need a 'Quantum Generation'? | TheHill - The Hill

Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide at the age of 34 on June 14 and since then there have been a lot of theories floating around why he took such a drastic step. Filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor who has worked with Sushant in debut film 'Kai Po Che' and later in 'Kedarnath', in a recent interview said that he was a "troubled man, whose mind was systematically dismantled by the industry."

As per reports on BollywoodLife, Abhishek said, "Its a systematic dismantling of a fragile mind. Sushant was brilliant, he was an engineer, he was into astrophysics and quantum physics. But because we couldnt box him into stereotypes we called him off. He was off, just off your radar. Theres this thing that if youre not like us then you cant be with us. There are so many camps that if youre not part of a camp, even if youre in the middle of a room, you will be ignored. It is true, especially for actors. I, as a filmmaker, can isolate myself. I can warn a young actor but he cannot see it at the time because the lights are so bright. You lose yourself."

The director further added how Sushant was trobled while shooting for 'Kedarnath' but when it was time to shoot he was 100% in the scene. For the uninformed, 'Kedarnath' was the debut film of actress Sara Ali Khan. The filmmaker said that Sushant felt that all the media attention had diverted towards her and he became reclusive.

"I had not spoken to him for about a year and a half. There were times, you talk and then youd go away to do a film. He must have changed his number 50 times and I remember when Kedarnath was coming out, the media had just slammed it. I dont know what happened, he could see that he was not getting the kind of love because everything was centered around Sara at that time. He was just kind of lost. When the film released and it did really well, I sent him a message saying, 'Bro I have been trying to reach you, Im not sure if you are upset, or just busy, but call me so we can chat. We made a super film together, again. If we are not going to celebrate it then what the hell are we going to celebrate in life? So please call me, I love you' to which he didn't respond. He didnt respond to me on his birthday. I said to myself just let it be. I could see he was not in a good place but you cannot cross a line," he stated.

Abhishek was present at Sushant's funeral along with his wife. He was cremated at Mumbais Vile Parle crematorium on Monday.

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'Everything was centered around Sara, he was lost': Abhishek Kapoor on Sushant Singh Rajput after 'Kedarnath' - DNA India

Fans have been clamoring for more quantum physics on the show and it's finally here, in the guise of Walker Texas Ranger AKA Denise Richards husband.

A collective exhale of relief was released from the fandom earlier this season on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, when the franchise finally decided to nix dinner topics like you fat-shamed my dogs caftan to finally unpack the theory of quantum physics and neurophysiology and its relation to molecular healing from vibrational frequencies (its about time). To whom holds the honor of elevating dinner discussion from tarot readings to highly classified government conspiracies? Sir Aaron Phypers / Aaron Cameron / Mr. Denise Richards, AKA "D-packin Chopra."

A wellness human tank, by way of Walker Texas Ranger, the only vibrations audiences were attuned to last season were the ones emitting from below Aarons Bootbarn belt buckle. The size of the rookie house husbands womb broom fell out of Ms. Richardss mouth more frequently than Kyle has a panic attack on a domestic flight.

Related:VPR, Southern Charm, RHOD & The Challenge Firings Reveal PR Apologies

But this season Aaron ignored all warning signs from the House Husbands Handbook to Navigating Reality TV Fooferah and went all in. Based a previous episode, An Hour of Bouncy Bonding with Lisa Rinna,' Phypers was intent on speaking The Truth, if The Truth was a riddle from a rotted fortune cookie. Attempting to break up a fight, Aaron interjected: When people win, also people engage because they want to see how people won ...keep that in mind ladies.That they did, as you could see the cogs turn behind their collective eyes. What? Was this the prologue of The Shart of War? The rest of his diatribe was equally confusing, attempting to drop truth bombs from space. Its pretty hard to be condescending when the words never ascend. Much like Gigi Goode of Drag Race, this was not an Aha moment.

That said, Watching Aaron argue is exhilarating. Every jab is like a mad-libs of bro-isms, or like watching a straight guy solve an "instant shad" Rubik's cube. Hes above their frequency, apparently. So what frequency is he on? Wed always gotten curious nuggets dropped every now and then as to what exactly his job is. Then, of course, the latest in the Dinner Party From Hell franchise an episode earlier (in which Phypers and Denise seemed to be on high alert as to whether the government was listening - seriously), where he went on a heavily edited lunacy rant on quantum theory while Mauricio counted the vast black hole of minutes fly by before he could get his jush again.

It was insane. Definitely up there in the Museum of Errant House Husbands collection of Antiquities, alongside The Career of one Slade Smiley, A Night in Prison at the Apollo, and Simon McCord's red leather pants. Phypers business apparently is called the "Q360 Club," which according to their website is a "state-of-the-art healing center designed to foster optimal health in mind-body-spirit." Q360 uses sound therapy and a "holistic approach to harness a wide range of energy fields to accelerate healing and amplify healing capabilities. Just in case youre wondering, yes the scientific community disowns it, and yes he thinks big pharma is out to kill him, at best its "Big Parma" a heavy set Italian Maitre d who wants his look back.

Whatever, either way, we have this on our TV sets, and were glad to see it. The more alarming moments, however, are his chilling aggressions towards Denise both at this dinner and in the latest episode, when the pair left hand in hand and he muttered under his breath: "Don't tell me what to say, I'm going to crush you f*cking hand." Foreshadowing indeed, as the rest of the season is about to heat up once again for the couple when chaotic evil fan-favorite Brandi Glanville (who entered the franchise without a leg to stand on, literally) is back to do what she does best: hunt, kill, and destroy. The rumor? Brandi has secretly been in a sexual relationship with Denise outside of her marriage. In the real world: oh sure, maybe theyre in an open pansexual relationship with like-minded consenting adults, on Real Housewives: Escandalo!

Regardless, this information comes by way of Glanville Courier Pidgeon, meaning its carrying an avian bird virus intent on leveling 90210. As for The Richards, were strapped in and ready to burst, waiting to see how this turns out on the remaining season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. In the meantime, some sage advice for Mr. Phypers, to quote Lisa Simpson: tis better to be thought the fool than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.

Next:The Real Housewives: Worst Couples, Ranked

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Marshall Lorenzo is a sketch comedy writer and performer living in Toronto. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, he was the head writer of the multi Canadian Comedy Award-winning sketch troupe The Sketchersons, and a writer/performer in the 2019 Canadian Comedy Award-winning show Extravaganza Eleganza. He now writes for TV (the eyeballs and earholes) and the computer screen (just the eyeballs). He likes sitting down and vodka.

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RHOBH: What's with Denise Richards Husband Aaron Phypers? - Screen Rant

Quantum computing holds the potential to one-day resolve some of the worlds most intricate and pressing conundrums. With the science and technology industry at the forefront of the global battle to defeat COVID-19, for example, it has played a part in discovering viable solutions, not just in the short term but for future pandemics. However, quantum computing is bound to force major changes to the cybersecurity landscape.

Rodney Joffe, SVP, senior technologist and Fellow, Neustar.

While quantum computing is still in its relative stages of infancy, its rapid evolution means it will soon overtake technologies weve previously relied on, including high performance cloud computing.

This is why numerous tech giants such as IBM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have entered the race to achieve what has been coined quantum supremacy: the competition to build the first fully-functioning and practical quantum computer. Microsoft, for instance, just announced that its quantum computing platform, Azure Quantum, is now available in limited preview.

Advancements such as these, however, have resulted in experts debating how the power of quantum will affect the cybersecurity landscape. Research from the Neustar International Security Council (NISC) recently revealed that almost a quarter of security professionals are already experimenting with quantum computing strategies, worried that it will outpace the development of existing security technologies.

These concerns are, in fact, extremely valid and require urgent action. Looking ahead, laying the foundations for rebuilding our current overarching cybersecurity approach including our algorithms, strategies and systems should be a key priority.

Across our most critical industries, quantum computing has the promise to solve what would have previously been described as unsolvable or existential problems.

When it comes to medical development, it has the potential to simulate how drugs will react. This reduces the risk during the commonly used trial and error method, and saves computational chemists both time and money. Already, researchers at Penn State University have announced that they are exploring how machine learning and quantum physics can be used to discover possible treatments for COVID-19.

In addition, Accenture recently published a paper with biotechnology innovator Biogen, which found that as quantum computers become more available, drug discovery will accelerate significantly, allowing scientists to compare much larger molecules.

Drug discovery is not the only area quantum computing will improve. Much has been reported about the technologys potential to beat climate change in the future. The World Economic Forum recently outlined how, by simulating large complex molecules, it will potentially be able to create new ones for carbon capture.

Whats more, last year, Google and NASA sparked frenzy within the technology community when together they revealed quantum computers hold the capability to compute in three minutes what would usually take supercomputers 10,000 years. While this feat is still years away, it is this level of power that cybersecurity professionals need to begin planning for.

At present, the cybersecurity industry depends on encryption to safeguard devices and personal data. In theory, encryption is possible to crack. In practice, however, it is impossible and would take a colossal amount of time to do so, over timescales of trillions of years.

Cryptography can be categorized in two ways: symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. In symmetric schemes, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt data. In asymmetric schemes also known as public key there is a publicly shared key for encryption and a private key for decryption. Built on complex mathematical calculations, these are crafted for a fundamental purpose: to be so complicated that they would take classical computers too long and use too much computational power to be solved.

However, encryptions time as a viable solution is limited. Neustars research revealed that nearly three quarters (75%) of cybersecurity professionals expect advances in quantum technology to beat current technologies, such as encryption, within the next five years. Its ability to break encryption techniques such as private key poses a major challenge to the cybersecurity industry. In the wrong hands, it could be used to launch a cyberattack on an unprecedented scale.

Given quantums ability to crack problems weve specifically created to be unsolvable at an unrivaled pace, there is a crucial need to create new public key schemes that are resistant to quantum technology. Even though a quantum computer capable of beating encryption is approximately ten years away, quantum-proof encryption needs to be implemented before then.

Planning for quantum requires a careful consideration of its progress. Luckily, most organisations have quantum computing on their radar. In fact, 74% of cybersecurity professionals have admitted to paying close attention to the technologys development.

Businesses are also required to take note of all encrypted data and make sure it is surrounded by 24/7 monitoring and threat intelligence tools, alongside robust processes. There needs to be a recognition that even though it is impossible for this data to be decrypted currently, advances in quantum computing will mean that it will be vulnerable in future.

The current global pandemic has taught us that we need science and technology more than ever to guide us through challenging times and produce the innovations that will see us benefit in the long run.

The sheer power and uncertainty of quantum should not be viewed negatively in fact, 87% of CISOs, CSOs, CTOs and security directors admitted that they are excited about the potential positive impact it will have. Quantum computing is part of the future, and the cybersecurity industry has to prepare early for its impact if they wish to reap the benefits.

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Restructuring cybersecurity with the power of quantum - TechRadar