Swiss Scientists Observe Einstein's "Spooky Tale" in Action

There is no more bizarre world than that of quantum physics. In this realm, truth is indeed stranger than any science fiction that could be conceived of by man.

Wikipedia
One aspect of this strange world is an eight decade mystery that may be close to being solved, writes Live Science. A ‘Spooky’ Tale In 1935, physicists and theoreticians Albert Einsein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen were trying to make heads and tails of a rather strange occurrence in the quantum realm.

Information Philosopher[/caption] The trio were trying to figure out why certain pairs of two quantum particles separated by tremendous chasms in the fabric of time-space possessed a unique relationship. Tests conducted by the team on one of these particles resulted in either planned or unplanned alterations to the distant particle. Not only that, but by manipulating one of the particles, the trio came to learn more about the distant one than the particle subjected to the test. Einstein referred to the cause-and-effect as “spooky action at a distance” but has been termed the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox.

The Beginnings of an Answer In the scholarly journal Science, a team of Swiss scientists published a paper on April 26 in which they have found that not only does the EPR occur with individual sets of quantum particles, but is also present in clumps of hundreds of particles. In their paper, the scientists write that they subjected 590 rubidium atoms to absolute zero temperatures, causing the particles to slow down and coalesce into a seemingly solid unit called a Bose-Einstein condensate. Accomplishing this, the scientists can then conduct experiments involving quantum physics on a much larger ‘physical canvas’ than that of more microscopic mediums.

Live Science reports that in the experiment, “they used high-resolution imaging to measure the spins of different chunks within the soup of rubidium atoms. The atoms in the condensate were so entangled that the physicists were able to predict the behavior of the second chunk by studying only the first.

Flickr Both chunks of atoms, they showed, were so entangled that the behavior of the second chunk was in fact more knowable when only the first was observed, and vice versa. The EPR paradox had come to life, on a relatively massive scale for the quantum world.” This is just the first step in what is sure to be a greater understanding of quantum physics and mechanics and how that paradox interacts with Einstein’s general relativity.

What do you think?