In 2022, a couple of scientist squads from Oxford and Vienna pulled off a real mind-bender. They did this experiment where they split up a photon using some fancy crystal mojo. And get this: the photon ended up cruising through both the past and the future at the same time! It's like time travel, but with a twist—'cause, ya know, there are always exceptions to the rule. But hey, it's still pretty darn cool to think about, right? Makes you wonder what other crazy stuff's out there waiting to be discovered! Credit:
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Wave-particle duality: Jubobroff, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wave-particle_duality.ogv
Quantum superposition: Jubobroff J.Bobroff, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quantum_superposition_of_states_and_decoherence.ogv
Sq3d-Feuille lenticulaire: Bernard SOULIER, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sq3d-Feuille_lenticulaire.jpg
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Pinus: Mika-Pekka Markkanen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinus_Sylvestris_Pollen_Corona.jpg
Lenticular printing principle: Cmglee, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lenticular_printing_principle.svg
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CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Wave-particle duality: Jubobroff, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wave-particle_duality.ogv
Quantum superposition: Jubobroff J.Bobroff, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quantum_superposition_of_states_and_decoherence.ogv
Sq3d-Feuille lenticulaire: Bernard SOULIER, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sq3d-Feuille_lenticulaire.jpg
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/:
Pinus: Mika-Pekka Markkanen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinus_Sylvestris_Pollen_Corona.jpg
Lenticular printing principle: Cmglee, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lenticular_printing_principle.svg
Animation is created by Bright Side.
#brightside
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Listen to Bright Side on:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078
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FunTranscript
00:00You, of course, know that the Earth is bathed in sunlight every day.
00:05Every day we flicker different light sources on and off, mechanically, without even thinking
00:10about it.
00:11But imagine that one day, you casually flicker the lights off, fall asleep, and wake up in
00:17a completely different era.
00:18Let's see how it happened, and what it has to do with light.
00:23Quantum physics is quite crazy.
00:26Quantum physics is like a movie projected from start to finish, while the quantum world
00:30is like having an ability to take the remote control and manipulate scenes you're watching.
00:36Fascinating and mysterious.
00:38Let's say you have a regular light switch that can be either on or off.
00:43That's like a regular bit in computers, which can be in one of two states, 0 or 1.
00:48But in quantum computers, there's a special kind of switch, a switch called a qubit.
00:53Unlike the regular bits, a qubit can exist in multiple states at the same time.
00:58It can be both 0, 1, and all things in between, like having lights on and off simultaneously.
01:05Yeah, our universe has some weird rules.
01:08This mysterious property, called superposition, allowed us to do something incredible recently
01:14to reverse time back.
01:16At least in a tiny experiment with quantum computers.
01:21It's the autumn of 2022.
01:24Two groups of scientists, one from Oxford and the other from Vienna, decided to conduct
01:28a weird experiment.
01:30They played around with a quantum computer to create a program that reverses time.
01:35They took a tiny electron and tried to make it go backward for a time for just a fraction
01:39of a second.
01:41It would be like breaking a billiard ball triangle where the balls go from order to
01:45chaos and then magically reverse.
01:48But don't get too excited about time travel yet.
01:52Unfortunately, we're not sure if it's possible to recreate it in real life.
01:56The scientists cracked some numbers and found out that if we observed 10 billion localized
02:01electrons every second for the entire age of the universe, we'd only see something
02:06like this happen once.
02:08And it would only take the electron back a tiny fraction of a second.
02:13So they didn't invent a time machine.
02:15They just managed to create this simulation in quantum computers.
02:19There's another catch too.
02:21The larger the simulation, the more complex and less accurate it becomes.
02:25In our experiment, we only used one qubit, and we managed to reverse time.
02:30In a 2-qubit setup, scientists could reverse time only in 85% of cases.
02:36And in a 3-qubit setup, it dropped to 50% with more errors.
02:40If we keep adding more qubits, we won't be able to pull this off at all.
02:44Plus, the success depends on the amount of information the system can store.
02:49For example, teleporting a person would be almost impossible because humans have so much
02:54information inside them.
02:56So unfortunately, no time machine so far.
03:00But there are some possible uses of this discovery.
03:03Reversing qubit states in a quantum computer can help correct errors during development.
03:08Sort of like a little Ctrl-Z in real life.
03:11So it was a tiny step to more exciting discoveries in the future.
03:15For example, recently they demonstrated another crazy little thing – send light itself back
03:21in time.
03:23Now light isn't mere luminary.
03:25It has superpowers that we can't even imagine.
03:28The ancient Greeks believed that our eyes emitted visionary beams.
03:32Sir Isaac Newton proved them wrong hundreds of years later when he conducted his experiments
03:37with prisms.
03:38The prism broke the pure white light into a beautiful palette.
03:42And that's how we found out that light actually consists of tons of different colors.
03:47Many years later, scientists learned even more that light is a wave.
03:51And even later, in the 20th century, we discovered the final paradox – that it's both a wave
03:56and a particle, a dual existence in one photon.
04:01And the more we learn about light, the more crazy things we find.
04:05In 2016, scientists managed to freeze the light in time.
04:10They put photons, the tiniest light particles, in ultra-cold atomic clouds.
04:15Then they managed to stop it, again, for just a moment.
04:19But the fact that it's even possible is already incredible.
04:23Then scientists got even bolder.
04:25They decided to try not only to freeze the light, but to move its direction in time.
04:30They took a special crystal and passed a photon through it, thus initiating the so-called
04:35quantum time reversal.
04:37As a result, the photon started moving into both the future and past at the same time.
04:43The science magic behind this involves two quantum principles – superposition and quantum
04:49symmetry.
04:50We already mentioned the first one – it allows tiny particles to exist in multiple
04:54states at once.
04:56Now the second principle says that even if you flip particles around like a mirror, they'll
05:00still follow the same laws.
05:03Combining this, scientists crafted a photon that defied the usual forward march of time.
05:09But again, it's nothing super fancy yet.
05:12This time flip only works for specific particles, not entire humans.
05:16And even if it did work for us, rewinding a person even for a second would take a super
05:21long time and a lot of energy.
05:25But the fact that we can change the light's speed and make it change directions is already
05:30amazing.
05:31And scientists already see some possible applications to this.
05:35For example, Harvard researchers suggest a cool way for spacecraft to zip through space
05:40at the speed of light – by hitching a ride on supernovas.
05:45Usually traveling to other stars takes an insane amount of energy, but these scientists
05:49have a wild idea.
05:50They think that spaceships could use natural events like hypervelocity stars and meteors
05:56zooming from supernovas to reach super-fast speeds.
05:59It's kind of similar to how sailing ships catch the wind.
06:04Advanced civilizations could use these energy bursts to speed up their spacecraft.
06:09Imagine a cool spacecraft with solar or magnetic sails harnessing the power of a supernova
06:14boom.
06:16These sails could use the pressure of the Sun's radiation to work, so that we wouldn't
06:20need any traditional engines or fuel.
06:23Plus these sails concepts are much lighter and cheaper to launch into space compared
06:27to regular spacecraft.
06:29The team is already working on a light sail, accelerated by lasers, to reach 20% the speed
06:35of light.
06:36It might not sound like a lot, but it's actually an insane speed.
06:40Their dream is to help humanity make a swift journey to Alpha Centauri in just two decades.
06:47Isn't it amazing how many things we can do with light, and not just in our imagination?
06:52Let's go to more practical achievements.
06:54Recently, a Canadian camouflage company called Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corporation has
07:00crafted an actual invisibility cloak.
07:04The wizardly cloak doesn't need any power source, is as thin as paper, and won't break
07:08the bank.
07:11Hyperstealth envisions a world where this material can cloak people, vehicles, ships,
07:15spacecraft, and even entire buildings.
07:18It's still in a prototype phase, but it already works pretty well.
07:23They name this incredible technology Quantum Stealth.
07:26It bends light in a way that can make objects disappear from sight.
07:30It can render objects nearly invisible, not only in the visible spectrum, but also in
07:35ultraviolet, infrared, shortwave infrared, and it even throws in thermal spectrum blocking
07:40for good measure.
07:42The technology works thanks to the lenticular lens, a corrugated sheet with outward curving
07:48lenses.
07:49When stacked in a specific way, these lenses refract light at various angles, creating
07:54spots that block light and conceal the object behind the material.
07:58Unfortunately, it doesn't give you a full invisibility effect.
08:03But maybe someday we'll achieve it, if we keep working on it.
08:07If you hide behind it, it will look like a little dirty or blurred glass, but you won't
08:11be visible.
08:12If you put this veil in front of your body, you'll look like a floating head.
08:18Scientific progress is in full swing.
08:20Maybe one day we'll be able to reverse time not only for little light particles, but for
08:25entire humans.
08:27Until then, let's enjoy our invisibility cloaks and stay curious!
08:31That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
08:36and share it with your friends!
08:38Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!