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Newsweek: Peeking at quantum systems not only changes what’s happening but what already happened? |
| Published: July 30, 2007, 12:44 pm |
| Tags: science stories |
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One has to look pretty hard these days to find stories on those erstwhile staples of the science beat — relativity and spooky quantum physics. The Tracker missed it when it came out and it’s almost off the newstands, but concerning the latter example the Jul. 30 Newsweek has a Sharon Begley column worth a look. It’s entitled “Putting Time in a (Leaky) Bottle,” and suggests that the future leaks into the present. It has to do with a recent conference at Oxford, some of the big names in quantum (and philosophical) physics, and the hoary old double slit experiment with its ageless perplexities. In a small quibble, her comparison of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to the cooling impact of a thermometer in a steak seems not quite right (one can NOT get both momentum and location of a steak exactly, no matter the tricks one tries. But to get its temp right now you can always cook the steak with the thermometer already in it …. unless you use one of [ Full article ] |
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