Cover Image: November 2009 Scientific American Magazine See Inside

How Noise Can Help Quantum Entanglement

What spoils quantum entanglement can also restore it















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The trick is to make sure it removes faster than it adds. Horodecki, Héctor Bombín of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and their colleagues recently devised such a setup, but for geometric reasons it would require higher spatial dimensions. Several other recent papers make do with ordinary space; instead of relying on higher geometry, they thread the system with force fields to tilt the balance toward error removal. But these systems may not be able to perform general computation.

This work suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, entanglement can persist in large, warm systems—including living organisms. “This opens the door to the possibility that entanglement could play a role in, or be a resource for, biological systems,” says Mohan Sarovar of the University of California, Berkeley, who recently found that entanglement may aid photosynthesis [see “Chlorophyll Power,” by Michael Moyer; Scientific American, September 2009]. In the magnetism-sensitive molecule that birds may use as compasses, Vedral, Elisabeth Rieper, also at Singapore, and their colleagues discovered that electrons manage to remain entangled 10 to 100 times longer than the standard formulas predict. So although we may not be electrons, living things can still take advantage of their wonderful quantumness.

Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Easy Go, Easy Come."



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  1. 1. Colin den Ronden 10:11 PM 11/2/09

    Sounds like they are turning science into magic. Let's go look for the philosopher's stone again, Merlin, I don't want that Potter kid grabbing it.

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  2. 2. Dr Laytex 10:06 AM 11/3/09

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.-A.C. Clarke

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  3. 3. Dr Laytex 10:06 AM 11/3/09

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.-A.C. Clarke

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  4. 4. jack.123 02:29 PM 11/3/09

    Space-time is wave function,and energy-mass is particle function nothing is in two places at the same time,sometimes its one, sometimes its the other,and sometimes its both.The only differance is that all of space-time is one instantly thoughout the universe,and energy-mass is in one place,thus ,you can't measure speed,and position at the same time,because their not the same thing.I only wish I had the math skills to prove this,would someone with those skills please prove its wrong.

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  5. 5. priya 05:13 AM 11/4/09

    i think i liked the idea of decoherence equals to camouflaging of entanglement over entanglement . but not entirely i am convinced by the V - shaped strategy ,it justs sounds good.

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  6. 6. Quinn the Eskimo 08:19 PM 11/4/09

    I guess this means Rahm Emanuel is hopelessly entangled by now.

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  7. 7. harol 06:12 AM 11/27/09

    Is'nt Quantum Mechanics about probabilities, which is that the particle could be here or there, not that it is? Isn't it just trying to predict where it will be on possibilities? That sounds like ordinary physics to me. As far as measuring or observing changing results, of course if you hit a particle with another particle, it will change it's behavior. And if your brain is operating on different frequencies, when you think one thing you are at perhaps at a vibration that sees the particle when it is in one state and not the other. It all seems explainable by ordinary reasoning. Am I missing something? Just because everything is in one place, doesn't mean it isn't everywhere, if you believe everything is consciousness, as David Bohm seems to think, in Implicate Order. That's solipsism and seems make everything fit together. Everything, even consciousness, could be an energy is different states, like solid, fluid and gas-like states. I find that very appealing for integrating all knowledge or perhaps synthesizing it to another level.

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  8. 8. MrGeorge 11:59 PM 5/31/11

    I always thought Quantum Physics was the philosopher’s stone, and not the stone itself. That is, QM exists because of the philosopher observing it.

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  9. 9. wpatten333 02:13 AM 9/8/11

    I have theories that just seem to come to me. I am very interested in math and physics, but I haven't the skills to work them out. First of all, time isn't even or smooth throughout the universe, relativity tells us that. If time and space are the same thing, then space is not smooth. But there is a third side to this coin, my deep intuition tells me that this is gravity. Where time is slower, or less intense, gravity is stronger. In the absence of a strong gravitational field time is faster, or more intense. Space-time. This explains exactly what dark energy and dark matter is and why the universes shape and structure is the way it is. There for matter is energy a direct consequence of Space-Time-Gravity the fourth side of the coin, but who do I tell? I have never liked the explanation of the strong force, or lack of explanation, the glue, so to speak that holds the nucleus of an atom together. This might better be explained if quantum entaglement could be proved to play some role in holding protons and nuetrons together in an entangled state. I don't know why I don't hear more about theories like this. Entaglement obviously exsists and must be a part of the fundamental theory.

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