Originally posted on Medium, January 04, 2022
This one’s for my fellow non-scientists.
As humans existing on a planet, we tend to simplify our environment, we use most commonly; Earth, Air, Water, Wind & Fire to quantify the elements. Sometimes we humanise it to the familiar; land and sea, or valleys and mountains, town and country. We use abstract, practical and geographic terms to describe and refer to what lies around us. Us busy, industrious humans like things to be relatable, graspable; to be able to touch, taste or see, to be able to visualise and re-create. Whilst we may differ on the approach, either relying more heavily on fact, or own-experience, or the work and research of others who specialise in studying ‘subjects beyond our ken’ (known experience), we return to the simple for reference.
Quantum mechanics arose as a superior theory, due to the fundamental failure of classical mechanics to describe several atomic phenomena. With the discovery of electron, by J.J. Thomson, in the year 1897, the whole idea of classical physics was shown to be inapplicable at the atomic level.
Quantum mechanics is like the new algebra. In the very act of comparing it to algebra am I dumbing down the complexity of Quantum Mechanics as I write? From a long, long, distance; a complete novice’s point of view, I find it fascinating that topics in physics that hitherto failed to adequately explain the irrational experiences such as objects seemingly moving without applied force, or the slowing down and speeding up of time, and of neutrons, atoms, sub-atomic particles (I mean WTF are sub-atomic particles!?), space, infinity and beyond… now form part of the solution to explain things previously considered indefinable and mystical.
Occasionally, a friend, a passing meme on Facebook, or a book title might entice me to conquer my ignorance and look a little closer. It was a brief and odd conversation in a café over Christmas that has led me here. It began with baking and moved to a piece of research based around couples having sex for thirty days straight and (mercifully) ranged swiftly on to politics, the de-stabilising of society and the role of the economy in this, before excited children bought the whole crazy exchange to a sudden stop, with imminent tears and a fight demanding all attention.
I’m at a stage in my life where I’m not clear on where I actually am, aside from the eternal question of what is my purpose? (my strengths, my core skills if you like), I have felt almost impelled, I may even mean forced by current socio-economic policy and its direct impact on my life to consider where I stand on many things and within the wider world. A sort of emotional and practical depth-finding exercise. Bouncing my position off the nearest solid objects and then finding an App to do the maths because I sure as hell can’t. And anyway, are objects actually solid? Quantum Mechanics tells me
“…the probability of your position at any given time, in the whole universe, is never zero”
Well that is quite exciting! In my current position I am less concerned with geography and more concerned with subjects such as work, ageing, cancer, death, healthcare, money, stability…. Tangible and intangible issues that draw me into a narrower field of vision and certainly don’t seem in any way related to Quantum Mechanics. However, I consult the bluffers guide to QM and I find words such as “Radiation’ or ‘Ionising Radiation’ to be more precise.
“Particles that can actually tunnel through walls, appear out of thin air and disappear, stay entangled and choose to behave like waves”
This is how we blast cancer cells out of the body, right? This is akin to the principle of wi-fi (Wireless Fidelity — would you credit it, it’s a brand name), where your printer magically reacts to commands from your lap-top isn’t it? A protocol that allows the exchange of data via radio waves? Well, radio waves contain noise that emerges from the random motion of the atoms in the things they are emitted from. One way to reduce this noise is to cool down the radio waves.
‘Using a circuit analogous laser cooling technique, scientists at the Delft University of Technology have discovered a new way to cool radio waves to their quantum ground state. They developed a device using a technique called photon pressure coupling that could also be used to detect ultra-weak magnetic resonance (MRI) signals or for quantum-sensing applications that can help the search for dark matter’
And there we have it, (nothing you can’t hum there) but proof, perhaps, that our healthcare is intrinsically connected to Quantum Mechanics. But, “Whoah!” I hear you cry, “Wait a minute! Dark Matter!!!?” I know, it’s mind-blowing. I want to say that it’s not related to the Dark Web and is something else entirely but at this point I am simply not qualified to make that claim. Anyway moving back to place and position… we are taken via electrons and photons (but not quite as we knew them in the genre of retro science fiction) to Black Body Radiation and the magnificently named Max Planck, who says that E = hν. Where E is energy, h is the Planck’s constant and ν is the frequency of radiation and where Albert Einsteins concept of light as a stream of photons assuming a wave pattern, is given a duality of character by Planck and becomes both wave and particle.
It’s all pretty clear so far isn’t it? And (stay with me), once we get into the QM theory in regards to energy (Oh, there’s those sub-atomic particles again) some really interesting thoughts start to burgeon. I’m skipping Schrodinger, his cat and electro-magnetism and ‘Matter Waves’ and getting back to ‘position’ thanks to Werner Heisenberg who proposes that ‘the more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa’. Δx.Δp ≥ h/2π (where Δx is the uncertainty in position, Δp is the uncertainty in momentum and h is Planck’s constant).
Before you slope off for a coffee, or are rushed off to A&E with lockjaw after yawning too much, just remember this is all theory and if it takes you anywhere (and whatever the naysayer’s say, the internet is an abundant source of expert guidance providing you check for the article, or pages’ provenance first, and it will definitely make more sense than I do). As I was saying, if it takes you anywhere, it might give you pause to think a little about ‘position’ because if probability says you are unlikely to be at zero and unlikely to return to zero — wherever you are right now you are never right back at the beginning. With every breath, step, action or thought, you are moving, constantly changing position. With every book you read and journey you make, you are riding the wave of Quantum Mechanics in one form or another. I like the concept of life as a wave in motion made up of particles creating, absorbing, emitting or containing energy. So maybe I should worry less about where I am and more about simply enjoying the ride. Interestingly prominent 19C Irish physicist John Tyndall wrote
© JulietB. Jan 03, 2022“Life is a wave, which in no two consecutive moments of its existence is composed of the same particles.”