Photons and Protons: The Good and Evil of Atoms
Walter Rhett
June 17, 2009
With North Korea exploding atoms underground and Iran developing military grade plutonium, it's worth a reminder that only eight countries possess or have tested nuclear weapons. The list: the United States, Russia, France, England, China (all before 1964), and more recently, India, Pakistan, North Korea. It is widely thought that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, but the country's nuclear status is unverified. South Africa previously built a nuclear arsenal but has dismantled it stores. Several other countries in Europe and the former Soviet bloc have also dismantled their nuclear weapons.
As some dismantle and shelve nuclear weapon programs (Brazil, Argentina), others build. Iran and Syria, despite denials, are thought to be building the capacity for nuclear weapons.
For all their destructive capacities, the use of atoms and sub-atomic particles also have a tremendous capacity for productive use. Breakthroughs in chip design have recently used sub-atomic particles.
In fact, a recent British report tells of a experiment that successfully directed particles of light, photons, along guideways etched on a silicon chip.
This is astounding news, and to be cheered.
The source of knowledge for this breakthrough is quantum theory, a scientific theory that models mathematically the atomic and sub-atomic world of matter.
In quantum theory, light is made up of single participles called photons. Quantum theory says the world in which photons reside and move has very different and more complex rules than the larger physical world we know.
In fact, this world has its own rules.
Quantum physics uncovers and mathematically maps the rules that describe the world at the atomic and sub-atomic levels. One of the major quirks of quantum physics is the movement and behavior of sub-atomic particles are unpredictable. In the math used to describe this sub-atomic world, light particles act like waves, like material with a fluid, continuous, shape changing energy. Yet, at other times, these very same particles act like discreet units: definite, separate, non-continuous; non-shape changing.
Quantum theory began back in 1838. But in today's time, this old, hard-to-understand theory has exciting potential for the hottest, newest, and wildest advances of speed, power, and precision in computing.
And in the equivalent of a quantum big-bang, a group of scientists from England, at the University of Bristol, have actually carried out experiments guiding and controlling photons across an integrated chip.
First, chips were built using photonic quantum circuits. The photon followed very small electrode tracks/circuits called waveguides. The "gates" of the waveguide are controlled by heat. Heat determines whether a photon continues forward or turns. An electrode produced the minuscule amounts of heat to direct the photons.
More importantly, the photons could be directed from a natural order of quantum organization called the "entangled state." Think of a strawberry picker who sends berries to specific locations, all at once. The entangled state is like a huge, unorganized strawberry field. The power of this massive movement is only available at the quantum level.
This opens up a huge frontier of possibilities. Speed, complexity, precision, applications will expand in in all directions and be able to reach unthinkable limits.
How fast would quantum computers be? One expert says, "Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that would take a classical computer longer than the age of the universe."
From designing new drugs for specific diseases to precise global positioning to encrypting information, quantum computing will radically change our world, especially if nuclear weapons are curtailed and eliminated, as over 100 countries, including the US and Russia, now support.
As some dismantle and shelve nuclear weapon programs (Brazil, Argentina), others build. Iran and Syria, despite denials, are thought to be building the capacity for nuclear weapons.
For all their destructive capacities, the use of atoms and sub-atomic particles also have a tremendous capacity for productive use. Breakthroughs in chip design have recently used sub-atomic particles.
In fact, a recent British report tells of a experiment that successfully directed particles of light, photons, along guideways etched on a silicon chip.
This is astounding news, and to be cheered.
The source of knowledge for this breakthrough is quantum theory, a scientific theory that models mathematically the atomic and sub-atomic world of matter.
In quantum theory, light is made up of single participles called photons. Quantum theory says the world in which photons reside and move has very different and more complex rules than the larger physical world we know.
In fact, this world has its own rules.
Quantum physics uncovers and mathematically maps the rules that describe the world at the atomic and sub-atomic levels. One of the major quirks of quantum physics is the movement and behavior of sub-atomic particles are unpredictable. In the math used to describe this sub-atomic world, light particles act like waves, like material with a fluid, continuous, shape changing energy. Yet, at other times, these very same particles act like discreet units: definite, separate, non-continuous; non-shape changing.
Quantum theory began back in 1838. But in today's time, this old, hard-to-understand theory has exciting potential for the hottest, newest, and wildest advances of speed, power, and precision in computing.
And in the equivalent of a quantum big-bang, a group of scientists from England, at the University of Bristol, have actually carried out experiments guiding and controlling photons across an integrated chip.
First, chips were built using photonic quantum circuits. The photon followed very small electrode tracks/circuits called waveguides. The "gates" of the waveguide are controlled by heat. Heat determines whether a photon continues forward or turns. An electrode produced the minuscule amounts of heat to direct the photons.
More importantly, the photons could be directed from a natural order of quantum organization called the "entangled state." Think of a strawberry picker who sends berries to specific locations, all at once. The entangled state is like a huge, unorganized strawberry field. The power of this massive movement is only available at the quantum level.
This opens up a huge frontier of possibilities. Speed, complexity, precision, applications will expand in in all directions and be able to reach unthinkable limits.
How fast would quantum computers be? One expert says, "Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that would take a classical computer longer than the age of the universe."
From designing new drugs for specific diseases to precise global positioning to encrypting information, quantum computing will radically change our world, especially if nuclear weapons are curtailed and eliminated, as over 100 countries, including the US and Russia, now support.
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