Space Time PBS

If you ever get tired of watching mind-numbing lol cats on Youtube, you can give those rusty neurons a fiery blast by videos under the Space Time channel. I've already highlighted a few of these videos in previous threads, and true to form, their host does not disappoint in his ability to explain and demonstrate the complex functions of our equally complex universe. Giving this series its own thread for potential discussions is long overdue in my humble opinion.

So, here we go...

I believe I'll start off with a recent video on a phenomenon of quantum mechanics called quantum tunneling. This, like other postulates of quantum mechanics, is truly bizarre―honest to goodness teleportation in action. The basic idea here is that if you have an alpha wave particle inside the nucleus of a larger particle, that alpha particle will be bounced about the walls of that nucleus. However, since particles act in quantum mechanics according to the De Brolie Wavelength (meaning they could potentially exist at many points at once in a wave pattern), it is possible for these alpha particles to escape the nucleus by a release of energy that allows them to bypass the inside of the nucleus and reappear on the outside with a decreased energy potential. This process should not be confused with entanglement, since an entangled state can only occur between two particles over a distance. Quantum tunneling happens with only one particle, but it does suggest that a particle possesses the random ability of travel to location based solely on the position its wave is directed to.

Crazy stuff, I know, but here's the video that explains it in detail...

For those of you who are melting in the heat of a merciless summer sun, here's a video that might cool you off. It poses the question whether we are headed for another Ice Age. I know that sounds insane under rules of climate change, but in geologic time, our Earth is in fact in the middle of an Ice Age. Humanity just happened to come out of the evolutionary shadows and flourish in one of its small warming trends. These brief warming periods have been observed as part of all the cooling periods Earth has experienced over its multi-billion year history. However, each of these geologic ages all occurred without a certain species pumping tons of carbon into the atmosphere. In geologic time we should be headed back to the freezer in a couple of thousand years. Will climate change halt this phenomena? Have we started a terraforming experiment that will break the mold?

Ok I understood part of that quantum tunneling video. Very interesting explanation, especially of how radioactive decay and nuclear fusion work. I wonder - if it's the momentum that makes the de Broglie wavelength smaller - why is it that such massive speeds of atoms are required to fuse nuclei? Why is it that larger nuclei - e.g. deuterium vs hydrogen - fuse more easily?

Along these lines, I read a very interesting article about quantum motion in plants. The way that light passes through the plant to make energy is far more efficient than it should be, with photons bouncing all over the place at random. Some believe that because of quantum superposition - a subatomic particle can be in multiple places simultaneously - the particles in the plant are able to instantaneously choose the best path through the leaf, and go directly where they should go without all the random scattering one might expect inside the plant.

the particles in the plant are able to instantaneously choose the best path through the leaf, and go directly where they should go without all the random scattering one might expect inside the plant.

You, know, it's funny you should bring that point up. Space Time's most recent video talks about this idea of photons "knowing" the best path to take, only through the classic double slit experiment.



What truly astounds me about the results of this experiment is that it doesn't matter if you fire many photons or pairs of photons at a time. The single photons follow the exact path and wave pattern as the multiple photon firings AND ended in a pattern on the catching screen identical to the multiple photon firings as well. I'll go out on a limb and say this behavior may be the reason why self-replicating systems are so commonly found in nature.

And this is a continuation of the video above. It talks about the erratic, near sentient, behavior photons demonstrate during the double-slit experiment. I'll give you a spoiler: this video involves quantum mechanic's personal darling―entanglement.

Can you solve the riddle of the quantum eraser time machine?

Well there we go. According to Neil deGrasse Tyson (Push our black horn-rimmed glasses further up the bridge of the nose), human existence is nothing more than an alien kid's Nintendo 3DS running in the basement on a weekend afternoon.