Uncertainty Sets Limits On Quantum Nonlocality 223
An anonymous reader writes "Research in today's issue of the journal Science helps explain why quantum theory is as weird as it is, but not weirder. Ex-hacker Stephanie Wehner and physicist Jonathan Oppenheim showed that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle sets limits on Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance.' Wired reports that the discovery was made by 'thinking of things in the way a hacker might' to uncover a fundamental link between the two defining properties of quantum physics (abstract, supplement). Oppenheim describes how uncertainty and nonlocality are like coding problems, enabling us to make a quantitative link between two of the cornerstones of quantum theory."
Re:Define 'observe' (Score:3, Interesting)
That might be a human being with an incredibly complex apparatus measuring the properties of an individual electron, or it might be a chemical reaction that is sweeping through the entire sample of whatever the electron is a part of.
Fair enough. But does that chemical reaction require an observation to define its outcome if it depends on those quantum events? At what point do you decide that the decision must be made?
Re:Define 'observe' (Score:2, Interesting)
The universe lazily loads the details when we want to inspect it. In reality the algorithm has optimized these things away. Its like forcing it to load the debugging symbols when you attach to the physics.exe process.
Higgs Boson particle = Null value? (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me guess... The "God" (Higgs Boson) particle is nothing more than nature's null value to assign properties of something without it actually existing. How would that be for irony?