News tagged with quantum mechanics

Revised theory of gravity doesn't predict a Big Bang

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Big Bang theory has formed the basis of our understanding of the universe's origins since it was first proposed in 1927 by Georges Lemaitre. And for good reason: the theory is supported ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 12, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (77) | comments 213 | with audio podcast feature

Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox

(PhysOrg.com) -- Entropy can decrease, according to a new proposal - but the process would destroy any evidence of its existence, and erase any memory an observer might have of it. It sounds like the plot ...

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 27, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (80) | comments 108 feature

Physicists Measure Elusive 'Persistent Current' That Flows Forever

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Yale University have made the first definitive measurements of "persistent current," a small but perpetual electric current that flows naturally through tiny rings of metal wire ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (60) | comments 16

Physicists close two loopholes while violating local realism

(PhysOrg.com) -- The latest test in quantum mechanics provides even stronger support than before for the view that nature violates local realism and is thus in contradiction with a classical worldview. By ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 30, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (60) | comments 81 | with audio podcast feature

Quantum Mysticism: Gone but Not Forgotten

Does mysticism have a place in quantum mechanics today, or is the idea that the mind plays a role in creating reality best left to philosophical meditations? Harvard historian Juan Miguel Marin argues the ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jun 08, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (53) | comments 43 feature

Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox

(PhysOrg.com) -- The possibility of going back in time only to kill your ancestors and prevent your own birth has posed a serious problem for potential time travelers, not even considering the technical details ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jul 21, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (55) | comments 96 | with audio podcast report

Quantum Mechanics Not In Jeopardy: Physicists Confirm Decades-Old Key Principle Experimentally

(PhysOrg.com) -- When waves -- regardless of whether light or sound -- collide, they overlap creating interferences. Austrian and Canadian quantum physicists have now been able to rule out the existence of ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jul 22, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (43) | comments 395 | with audio podcast

Seeing quantum mechanics with the naked eye

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cambridge team have built a semiconductor chip that converts electrons into a quantum state that emits light but is large enough to see by eye. Because their quantum superfluid is simply ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jan 09, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (44) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Physicists Show Theory of Quantum Mechanics Applies to the Motion of Large Objects

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have provided the first clear demonstration that the theory of quantum mechanics applies to the mechanical motion of an object large enough to be seen by the ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 17, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (42) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle sets limits on Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance,' new research finds

Researchers have uncovered a fundamental link between the two defining properties of quantum physics. Stephanie Wehner of Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies and the National University of Singapore ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Nov 18, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (44) | comments 53 | with audio podcast

Quantum Theory May Explain Wishful Thinking

(PhysOrg.com) -- Humans don’t always make the most rational decisions. As studies have shown, even when logic and reasoning point in one direction, sometimes we chose the opposite route, motivated by personal ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Apr 14, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (47) | comments 14 feature

Time reversal: A simple particle could reveal new physics

(PhysOrg.com) -- A simple atomic nucleus could reveal properties associated with the mysterious phenomenon known as time reversal and lead to an explanation for one of the greatest mysteries of physics: the ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 11, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (40) | comments 128 | with audio podcast

3 Questions: Steven Nahn on the elusive Higgs boson

(PhysOrg.com) -- Troubles at the Large Hadron Collider have led some physicists to suggest the Higgs boson is sabotaging its own discovery. Nahn explains why he disagrees.

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (41) | comments 10

Quantum non-demolition measurement allows physicists to count photons without destroying them

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a way, the quantum world seems to know when it's being watched. When physicists make measurements on photons and other quantum-scale particles, the measurements always disturb the system ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jul 09, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (36) | comments 7 | with audio podcast feature

Physicists use offshoot of string theory to describe puzzling behavior of superconductors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists are divided on whether string theory is a viable theory of everything, but many agree that it offers a new way to look at physical phenomena that have otherwise proven difficult ...

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 05, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (39) | comments 143 | with audio podcast

Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the submicroscopic scale (at the atomic level). Notable among these principles are simultaneous wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation ("Wave–particle duality"), and the prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certainties. Classical physics can be derived as a good approximation to quantum physics, typically in circumstances with large numbers of particles. Thus quantum phenomena are particularly relevant in systems whose dimensions are close to the atomic scale, such as molecules, atoms, electrons, protons and other subatomic particles. Exceptions exist for certain systems which exhibit quantum mechanical effects on macroscopic scale; superfluidity is one well-known example. Quantum theory provides accurate descriptions for many previously unexplained phenomena such as black body radiation and stable electron orbits. It has also given insight into the workings of many different biological systems, including smell receptors and protein structures.

For more information about Quantum mechanics, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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