God Awful Things

From Discover Magazine:

Quantum mechanics holds that any given particle has a chance of being in a whole range of locations and, in a sense, occupies all those places at once. Physicists describe quantum reality in an equation they call the wave function, which reflects all the potential ways a system can evolve. Until a scientist measures the system, a particle exists in its multitude of locations. But at the time of measurement, the particle has to “choose” just a single spot. At that point, quantum physicists say, probability narrows to a single outcome and the wave function “collapses,” sending ripples of certainty through space-time. Imposing certainty on one particle could alter the characteristics of any others it has been connected with, even if those particles are now light-years away. (This process of influence at a distance is what physicists call entanglement.) As in a game of dominoes, alteration of one particle affects the next one, and so on.

You read that Spolans? Then you’re gonna love this..

The implications of all this are mind-bending. In the macro world, a ball never spontaneously shoots itself over a wall. In the quantum world, though, an electron in one biomolecule might hop to a second biomolecule, even though classical laws of physics hold that the electrons are too tightly bound to leave. The phenomenon of hopping across seemingly forbidden gaps is called quantum tunneling.

Remember me suggesting “What if you could undrop that rock?” and you stamped around saying “bollocks” and waving your hands?

Then came the revelation: Instead of haphazardly moving from one connective channel to the next, as might be seen in classical physics, energy traveled in several directions at the same time. The researchers theorized that only when the energy had reached the end of the series of connections could an efficient pathway retroactively be found. At that point, the quantum process collapsed, and the electrons’ energy followed that single, most effective path.

Your brain, it’s on the floor.  Simplicity is best, if it’s good, do it.  Now, from a different article:

The study, published in the journal Nature [subscription required], shows that the particles did indeed mirror each other’s properties at the exact same moment even though they were 11 miles apart. The research team says their finding disproves the more comprehensible hypothesis–that the particles were sending signals at faster-than-light speed–and instead supports the stranger theory of instant communication. Dr Terence Rudolph of Imperial College, London, remarks that “any theory that tries to explain quantum entanglement… will need to be very spooky – spookier, perhaps, than quantum mechanics itself” [Telegraph].

Pretty romantic, I won’t lie.

Other linkers of interest.

Einstine’s spooky actions acts at 10,000 times the speed of light.

Wiki entry on Quantum Tunneling.