Posted on 06/16/2004 1:54:18 PM PDT by vannrox
TED: 2:55 pm EDT June 16, 2004
UPDATED: 3:03 pm EDT June 16, 2004
In a step toward making ultra-powerful computers, scientists have transferred physical characteristics between atoms by using a phenomenon so bizarre that even Albert Einstein called it spooky.
Such "quantum teleportation" of characteristics had been demonstrated before between beams of light.
The work with atoms is "a landmark advance," H.J. Kimble of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and S.J. van Enk of Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., declare in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Two teams of scientists report similar results in that issue. One group was led by David J. Wineland of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., and the other by Rainer Blatt of the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
Teleportation between atoms could someday lie at the heart of powerful quantum computers, which are probably at least a decade away from development, Wineland said. Although his work moved information about atomic characteristics only a tiny fraction of an inch, that's in the ballpark for what would be needed inside a computer, he said.
His work involved transmitting characteristics between pairs of beryllium atoms, while the Austrian work used pairs of calcium atoms. Each atom's "quantum state," a complex combination of traits, was transmitted to its counterpart.
Key to the process was a phenomenon called entanglement, which Einstein derided as "spooky action at a distance" before experiments showed it was real.
Basically, researchers can use lab techniques to create a weird relationship between pairs of tiny particles. After that, the fate of one particle instantly affects the other; if one particle is made to take on a certain set of properties, the other immediately takes on identical or opposite properties, no matter how far away it is and without any apparent physical connection to the first particle.
Thanks. This stuff makes my head hurt. :-P
You're correct. Misuse of terms. Five yard penalty (to me).
I think I will try to reread this thread tomorrow, and see if I can understand more the second time around. Thanks to all who have been explaining this effect. It sounds quite important.
That would be Firesign Theater - I think "We're all Bozos on This Bus", but it has been quite awhile. I'd probably also need some doobage to shake the memory loose...and that ain't gonna happen.
Something about that isn't sitting right with me. Maybe I just need to chew it over (it's been many years since I tried to figure out relativity). "Acceleration" according to what viewpoint? And if the effect of any acceleration in any direction is to always see the other clock as slowing down, wouldn't that cause light from the other source to seem to be moving faster or slower than c (an effect that relativistic effects are supposed to cancel out, so that all parties always observe light from every source to be precisely c)?
Heh - it's making me dizzy. I think I feel neurons going into seizure.. =) I'm gonna brew a pot of coffee and then I'll give it a shot. I think I have the explanation (as best I understand it) almost focused in my mind's vision..
If time travel was possible, visitors from the future would already have been here. Personally, I would have traveled to 1986 and invested $10,000 in Microsoft and laid another $10,000 in Vegas that the Red Sox would lose the World Series to the New York Mets in 7 games.
The problems that I've seen discussed seem to be logical and conceptual rather than mechanical. Scientists are naturally leery about Star Trekkian time travel paradoxes--which is as they should be.
On the other hand, I'm not seeing that instantanious communication would actually go back in time. Then again, I'm probably wrong about that for some reason that still escapes me. *chuckle*
Actually it is Firesign Theater's album "How Can You Be in Two Places At Once When Your Not Anywhere At All?"
Basically, researchers can use lab techniques to create a weird relationship between pairs of tiny particles. After that, the fate of one particle instantly affects the other; if one particle is made to take on a certain set of properties, the other immediately takes on identical or opposite properties, no matter how far away it is and without any apparent physical connection to the first particle.
OK, so you establish the relationship between two particles of unstable matter, say Plutonium. Then let soem bad guys get hold of a load of Plutonium big enough to make a nasty bomb out of, but you've managed to insert one half of your "coupled" pair into this critical mass. Let the bad guys smuggle their ill gotten gains to, oh, I don't know, UBLs lair. You then simply place the "lonely" particle in an atom smasher at the focal point of your beam and I think you might be able to trigger a dandy little surprise for the baddies.
Going back to the ST transporter, I've never been able to figure out why they never used IT as a weapon. Say beaming out a big chunk of the side of your enemies ship, or his engine core. Would have nasty effects.
Now watch this comment be pulled... reason... loose lips.
Is Warp 1 equal to the speed of light?
When they go to warp 10, how do they keep from getting plastered to the wall during acceleration?
If this is achieved, we should first teleport Islamo-fascists to the moon, or perhaps Mars, with no way of being teleported back.
The cochrane is the unit used to measure subspace field stress. Cochranes are also used to measure field distortion generated by other spatial manipulation devices, including tractor beams, deflectors, and synthetic gravity fields. Fields below Warp 1 are measured in millicochranes.
A subspace field of one thousand millicochranes or greater becomes the familiar warp field. Field intensity for each warp factor increases geometrically and is a function of the total of the individual field layer values. Note that the cochrane value for a given warp factor corresponds to the apparent velocity of a spacecraft traveling at that warp factor. For example, a ship traveling at Warp Factor 3 is maintaining a warp field of at least 39 cochranes and is therefore traveling at 39 c, the speed of light. Approximate values for integer warp factors are:
| Warp Factor 1 = | 1 cochrane |
| Warp Factor 2 = | 10 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 3 = | 39 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 4 = | 102 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 5 = | 214 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 6 = | 392 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 7 = | 656 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 8 = | 1024 cochranes |
| Warp Factor 9 = | 1516 cochranes |
The actual values are dependent upon interstellar conditions, e.g., gas density, electric and magnetic fields within the different regions of the Milky Way galaxy, and fluctuations in the subspace domain. Starships routinely travel at multiples of c, but they suffer from energy penalties resulting from quantum drag forces and motive power oscillation inefficiencies.
*******
The short answer to your second question is that the starship's local velocity does not change in the course of shifting from one warp speed to a higher warp speed, but rather the time dilation effect of the warp field is modulated to produce the swifter transit.
For example, a ship traveling at Warp Factor 3 is maintaining a warp field of at least 39 cochranes and is therefore traveling at 39 times c, the speed of light.
Shades of the Fly.
I don't want to be first.
Please add me to your Science ping list.
"Assuming a 150 lb person, you would yield ~1636.36 megatons."
You can double the yield by having said subject eat a can of Bush's Baked Beans(I'm not slamming the president!) before said energy release of said subject. You get the added benefit of nuclear and gas WMD attack!
bump for later
Thanks! Now I can sleep well tonight.
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