Tag Archives: Quantum mechanics
Using 10,000 atoms and 1 to probe the Bohr-Einstein debate
The double-slit experiment has often been described as the most beautiful demonstration in physics. In one striking image, it shows the strange dual character of matter and light. When particles such as electrons or photons are sent through two narrow … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Albert Einstein, Bohr-Einstein debate, complementarity, Debye-Waller factor, double-slit experiment, hidden variables, lasers, Niels Bohr, optical lattice, optical tweezer, Pan Jianwei, quantum entanglement, Quantum mechanics, rubidium atoms, scattered light, uncertainty principle, wavepacket, Wolfgang Ketterle
Comments Off on Using 10,000 atoms and 1 to probe the Bohr-Einstein debate
Dispelling Maxwell’s demon
Maxwell’s demon is one of the most famous thought experiments in the history of physics, a puzzle first posed in the 1860s that continues to shape scientific debates to this day. I’ve struggled to make sense of it for years. … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged arrow of time, Charles Bennett, decoherence, Dennis Gabor, entropy, information theory, James Clerk Maxwell, Leo Szilard, Léon Brillouin, Maxwell's demon, no-cloning theorem, quantum entanglement, quantum information, Quantum mechanics, Rolf Landauer, Schrödinger's cat, second law of thermodynamics, unitarity, wavefunction collapse
Comments Off on Dispelling Maxwell’s demon
What on earth is a wavefunction?
If you drop a pebble into a pond, ripples spread outward in gentle circles. We all know this sight, and it feels natural to call them waves. Now imagine being told that everything — from an electron to an atom … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged classical mechanics, coherence, decoherence, delocalisation, Newton's second law, quantum information, Quantum mechanics, quantum superposition, Schrödinger equation, uncertainty principle, wavefunction, wavefunction collapse, zero-point motion
Comments Off on What on earth is a wavefunction?
The gap between language and quantum mechanics
Physics World has a fantastic article about the problem with using a language invented, in Terry Pratchett’s words, “to tell other monkeys where the ripe fruit is”, to describe the peculiar but very much real possibilities created by the rules … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Scicomm
Tagged Embassytown, faith, Higgs boson, language, quantum computing, quantum entanglement, Quantum mechanics, quantum superposition, Werner Heisenberg
Comments Off on The gap between language and quantum mechanics
My heart of physics
Every July 4, I have occasion to remember two things: the discovery of the Higgs boson, and my first published byline for an article about the discovery of the Higgs boson. I have no trouble believing it’s been eight years … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Scicomm
Tagged ATLAS detector, Atomki, axions, CEPC, CERN, CMS detector, hedonism, Higgs boson, Higgs factory, Large Hadron Collider, particle physics, Quantum mechanics, Sabine Hossenfelder, thermodynamics, XENON excess
Comments Off on My heart of physics
Scientists make video of molecule rotating
A research group in Germany has captured images of what a rotating molecule looks like. This is a significant feat because it is very difficult to observe individual atoms and molecules, which are very small as well as very fragile. … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged carbonyl sulphide, classical mechanics, Coulomb explosion, electromagnetic force, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, laser, Quantum mechanics, quantum superposition, strong nuclear force, velocity map imaging spectrometer, weak nuclear force
Comments Off on Scientists make video of molecule rotating
Jayant Narlikar’s pseudo-defence of Darwin
Jayant Narlikar, the noted astrophysicist and emeritus professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, recently wrote an op-ed in The Hindu titled ‘Science should have the last word’. There’s probably a tinge of sanctimoniousness there, echoing the … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged Charles Darwin, cosmology, fluid dynamics, Jayant Narlikar, Navier–Stokes equations, Niels Bohr, original of life, principle of correspondence, quantum coherence, quantum gravity, Quantum mechanics, theory of evolution
Comments Off on Jayant Narlikar’s pseudo-defence of Darwin
All the science in ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’
I watched The Cloverfield Paradox last night, the horror film that Paramount pictures had dumped with Netflix and which was then released by Netflix on February 4. It’s a dumb production: unlike H.R. Giger’s existential, visceral horrors that I so … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged black holes, compactification, high dimensions, Interstellar, Kaluza-Klein theory, Large Hadron Collider, particle accelerators, Quantum mechanics, special theory of relativity, Spectral, string theory, The Cloverfield Paradox, wave function, wavefunction
Comments Off on All the science in ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’
The science in Netflix’s ‘Spectral’
It’s fun to think about the implications of a film’s antagonists being modelled after a phenomenon I’ve often read/written about but never thought about that way. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Albert Einstein, BCS theory, Bose-Einstein condensate, ceramics, Cooper pair, DARPA, electromagnetic radiation, M1 Abrams tank, Netflix, Quantum mechanics, refractive index, SN Bose, Spectral, superconductivity, superfluidity, UV light, warcraft, wavefunction
Comments Off on The science in Netflix’s ‘Spectral’