Quantum Physics, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2005

Accidental Invention Points to End of Light Bulbs

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork. An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the...

May 31, 2006

Lost Dimension Yields Accidental Discovery

Using strong magnets and a pigment developed by ancient Chinese warriors, scientists turned a three-dimensional system into one with just two dimensions. The transformation's discovery was accidental, but it provides physical evidence for several theories and might help scientists build faster computers. Our three-dimensional world gives us three options for...

Oct 31, 2007

Small World: Quantum Identity Crisis Observed

A quantum enigma has been put to the test once again, but this time physicists have made the experiment smaller than it has ever been. The classic double-slit experiment tests the behavior of light, electrons, atoms and some molecules as both particle-like and wave-like, a mysterious duality that has intrigued...

May 31, 2012

'Peekaboo' Reveals Babies Understanding of Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics, the bizarre set of rules that govern the behavior of elementary particles, is notoriously confounding. Even Albert Einstein — winner of a Nobel Prize for his work in the field — thought there was something dicey about the whole business. But then again, he was a grown man....

Sep 30, 2013

Spintronics Goes Through Blue Period

A dye used in ink, paint and in the blue livery of British Rail could be key to building future computing devices and exploring quantum mechanics. It's called copper pthalocyanine. A team of scientists in the U.K. used it to explore spintronics, the manipulation of electron spins. Electrons can have...

Aug 31, 2013

Beam Me Up: Bits of Information Teleported Across Computer Chip

Quantum mechanics allows for some very strange things, like the teleportation of information and computers that can break even the toughest codes. Recently, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich made a step toward building a working quantum computer by teleporting bits of information across a...

Aug 31, 2015

Passing Quantum Secrets: The Next Level Beyond Quantum Computing

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The one thing everyone knows about quantum mechanics is its legendary weirdness, in which the basic tenets of the world it describes seem alien to the world we live...

Aug 5, 2017

Is Space Full of Quantum Foam?

Look at space under a microscope and what do you see? Nothing. Magnify 1,000 times. Nothing. Magnify 1,000,000 times. Still nothing. Magnify 1,000,000,000 times. Absolutely nothing. At this point, the average person would probably be satisfied with the conclusion that space is, in fact, nothing. This makes intuitive sense, after...

Oct 5, 2017

World's Most Precise Clock Powered by Supercold Strontium Atoms

A new kind of atomic clock is more precise than any yet built, with the ability to tick smoothly for a thousand times the lifetime of the universe. In addition to being the best timekeeper to date, the new so-called quantum gas clock might one day offer insights into new...

Oct 10, 2017

Quantum Communication Demonstrated in Real-Life City Conditions

A quantum-encrypted message containing more than one bit of information in each particle of light was beamed through the air between two buildings in a real-life city for the first time, a demonstration that could simplify quantum communication and make it more viable in the future, according to a recent...

Oct 25, 2017

There and Back Again: Scientists Beam Photons to Space to Test Quantum Theory

Researchers have taken a famous quantum-physics experiment to new heights by sending light, in the form of photons, to space and back, demonstrating the dual-particle-wave nature of light over much greater distances than scientists can achieve on Earth. In the quantum theory of reality, particles like electrons and photons behave...

Nov 2, 2017

The Subatomic Discovery That Physicists Considered Keeping Secret

A pair of physicists announced the discovery of a subatomic event so powerful that the researchers wondered if it was too dangerous to make public. The explosive event? The duo showed that two tiny particles known as bottom quarks could theoretically fuse together in a powerful flash. The result: a...

Nov 29, 2017

Quantum Computers Bust Problem Conventional Computers Can't Solve

Fifty-odd atoms buzz through a pocket of empty space. Invisible lines of force — quantum magnetism — chain them together. Jiggle one, the others jiggle in sympathy. Ring another like a bell and the others will pick up the song at a different pitch or a slower speed. Every action...

Dec 17, 2017

These Quantum Droplets Are the Most Dilute Liquids in the Known Universe

A team of physicists in Barcelona has created liquid droplets 100 million times thinner than water that hold themselves together using strange quantum laws. In a paper published Dec. 14 in the journal Science, researchers revealed that these bizarre droplets emerged in the strange, microscopic world of a laser lattice...

Dec 23, 2017

Time Crystals to Tetraquarks: Quantum Physics in 2017

Quantum Physics in 2017 (Image credit: sakkmesterke/Shutterstock)The year 2017 was wild and unpredictable. And what science is better-suited for a weird year than quantum physics? This year ushered in astonishing quantum discoveries from all corners — deep-buried neutrino labs in Antarctica, quantum-computing labs at major universities and even thunderstorms rumbling...