A recent breakthrough in quantum physics means you’d better study it if you want to know where tech is going
QUANTUM PHYSICS is an often mind-boggling branch of science filled with strange behavior and bizarre implications. For many people, the mere mention of the term is enough to send them hurtling in the opposite direction, like an electron bouncing off the center of an atom. But evidence is mounting that the future of technology lies in quantum mechanics, which focuses on how the smallest things in our universe work. And a new breakthrough by scientists in China has just brought the world one very big step closer to this quantum revolution. Hundreds of miles closer, in fact. So it’s as good a time as any to understand why quantum physics is making such waves.
THE BACKGROUND
Quantum physics is all about waves and particles. Together. Sort of. Mostly, we think of light as something that occurs in waves and matter as distinct particles. But theorist Max Planck’s attempt in 1900 to explain colors emitted from hot objects started scientists down a path that transformed our understanding of how life works at the very smallest scale. The first step was realizing that light behaves like a stream of individual particles, photons. Albert Einstein came to this conclusion following Planck’s work. Each photon contains a discrete amount of energy.
Subsequent research by Niels Bohr and others disrupted what physicists understood about electrons, the negatively charged particles that swirl around the heavy centers of the atoms that make up the elements that in turn make up matter. That disruption was accentuated by Louis de Broglie, who realized that if light can behave like a particle, maybe electrons could behave like waves. Numerous experiments proved that to be the case. Photons behave like waves and particles. Electrons behave like waves and particles. The type of measurement you do determines how a photon or an electron behaves.
This story is from the July 21 2017 edition of Newsweek Europe.
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This story is from the July 21 2017 edition of Newsweek Europe.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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