Einstein was right, you can be in two places at once

[The Straight Story]

A device that exists in two different states at the same time, and coincidentally proves that Albert Einstein was right when he thought he was wrong, has been named as the scientific breakthrough of the year.

The machine, consisting of a sliver of wafer-thin metal, is the first man-made device to be governed by the mysterious quantum forces that operate at the level of atoms and sub-atomic particles.

Normal, everyday objects obey the laws of conventional Newtonian physics, named after Sir Isaac Newton, but these rules break down on the sub-atomic scale and a whole new branch of theoretical physics had to be invented to explain what happens on this sub-microscopic level.

...


The breakthrough was achieved by physicists Andrew Cleland and John Martinis from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Their machine consisted of a tiny metal paddle made of semiconductor material just visible to the naked eye. By supercooling the device to just above absolute zero (minus 273C), then raising its energy by a "single quantum", they made it vibrate by getting thicker and thinner at a frequency of some 6 billion times a second, producing a detectable electric current. They even managed to get it to vibrate in two energy states at once, both a lot and a little – a phenomenon allowed only by the rules of quantum mechanics.

"Physicists still haven't achieved a two-places-at-once state with a tiny object like this one," Mr Cho said. "But now that they have reached this simplest state of quantum motion, it seems a whole lot more obtainable."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/einstein-was-right-you-can-be-in-two-places-at-once-2162648.html

[NV Whino]

1. I have no idea what they are saying

But this appears to be a major achievement.

[xchrom]

4. what you said. nt

[TalkingDog]

9. Beam me up Scottie.

But in caveman language.

[soryang]

2. Vector states visible at such a high frequency?

At the macro scale multiple vector states exist, they are not visible because our concious perception interval is something like .025 to .04 second which is a very blunt tool. Time is the barrier. Sometimes world class athletes develope perception intervals of less than .01 second, still abysmally slow by quantum standards.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Einstein is utterly peripheral to all of this

But the report manages to imply that it's based on some insight of his. Makes for a good headline, I guess.

[soryang]

6. Exactly n/t

[Motown_Johnny]

10. Heisenberg, Einstein.. whatever!

[Lyric]

5. So they basically proved that parallel dimensions (for want of a better, non-sci-fi term) exist?

Or at least CAN physically exist?

I know that "parallel dimensions" is a loaded term that most scientists and physicists are loathe to use when talking to the general public, but that's basically what this is--correct? What else would you call it when you have an object made of matter that is doing to two opposite things at exactly the same place in space and time--both moving quickly and moving slowly. It seems like a physical impossibility unless you conclude that the object is vibrating quickly in one dimension, and slowly in another. It doesn't mean that humans can travel to parallel dimensions anytime in the next thousand years or ten, but it does appear mean that parallel dimensions for inanimate objects have finally been proven to be physically possible--and perhaps more importantly--perceivable.

So am I interpreting this right?

[Matariki]

7. Thanks for posting this.

Interesting stuff.

[The Straight Story]

8. I actually posted it twice, at once, the other one shows up in a different universe

;)

[kentuck]

12. I think I read it?

:-)

[GeorgeGist]

15. I thought I'd read it elsewhere.

[Motown_Johnny]

16. it would need to show up in infinitely many other universes

that's just the way these things work

[kentuck]

11. Do they time travel on the super vibrating electrical wave??

Very interesting.

[Motown_Johnny]

14. yes, but only forward in time and at the same rate as everything else

around it

[kentuck]

17. So long as Dr. No doesn't get his hands on it...

:-)

[Motown_Johnny]

13. Hmmm......

I'm not sure the interpretation of this outcome is accurate.



It could be that the interaction of the weak and strong nuclear forces are discernible as distinct separate energies at this level. You would therefore be picking up two different energy states at once because there are two different forces at work.



It was also my understanding that the effort to prove the existence of parallel dimensions involves super colliders smashing particles and looking for missing energy (presumably gravitons) that must exist but doesn't. This energy/graviton would then be assumed to have moved into a different dimension.



I am extremely sceptically when it comes to alternate dimensions and it is going to take more than one strange effect with a superconductor near absolute zero to get me to accept the possibility as a probability.

[Vickers]

18. I just stopped a leak in the guest bathroom sink. n/t