“...spooky action at a distance.” (Einstein)

[ccairspace]

It was refreshing to log on today and read a discussion of physics! So, if people have a bit of sit-down time after Remembrance Day services, I recommend ploughing through the linked article. It is long but the subject matter is simply so fascinating, I cannot help but share it.

The link

The following are a few quotes from the article to whet your appetite.

Enjoy.

ccairspace

"For decades... few physicists worried about entanglement. It was regarded as a hypothetical concept with no real prospects for ever being tested. “Initially it was a pure theory — quasi-philosophy,” says physicist Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva.

That’s no longer the case. Now, laboratories around the world routinely create and study entanglement, pushing the limits on the types and sizes of objects that can be entangled. Some studies are attempting to clarify the mysterious boundary separating the strange realm of quantum weirdness from the macroscopic world of football. Others focus on entanglement itself, particularly how it changes over time. Much of the new work is building a base for powerful technologies that operate in the real world, from manipulating information in futuristic quantum computers to sending secret messages with unbreakable security."

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"Physicists have lots of ideas for what they would do with the power to create, demolish and resurrect entanglement on demand. Although some of the schemes are esoteric, entanglement has a few “killer apps,” says Monroe. Chief among these are harnessing entanglement to shuttle information around in powerful quantum computers, across power lines and through the air, and distributing impenetrable coding keys to keep information secure."

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"Entanglement is at the heart of what physicists call teleportation — in which two entangled objects serve as a link that moves quantum information from one physical location to another. The setup is simple: One object (say a photon) holds the information to be teleported. When that photon interacts with one of a pair of entangled photons, new information is created, allowing the original photon to be reconstructed at a distant location with the help of the other member of the entangled photon pair. (The information needed to reconstruct the original photon must be sent over a normal communication network, though.) Teleportation was proposed in 1993 and was first experimentally demonstrated in 1997."

Since entanglement was first described, it has morphed from a philosophical debate to an experimental oddity to a potentially powerful way to communicate, showing itself to be even weirder than Einstein didn’t want it to be."

[Mitch Cronin]

Really cool stuff!

I'm itching to see what kinds of commercial gizmos or industrial gadgets and computer wizardry develop from the know-how. What a concept! .... even just to think light speed is too slow for anything at all is a mind boggler!