Quantum What?

Quantum seems to be the new buzz word in science. I believe there are those who are confused about exactly what quantum means. In physics the word quantum means the smallest amount of a physical quantity which can exist. It also means other things depending on how the word is used, for example if we are talking about energy it is an amount of energy regarded as a unit. It can be a specified portion or something which can be counted or measured. It is also a unit of acetylcholine released in the body. As you can see there are quite a few different meanings for the word quantum. According to many scientists we live in a quantum universe. They talk often about Quantum Theory and Quantum Mechanics and many papers are written on the subject.Β  I have to admit when I first heard about Quantum Theory I didn’t understand it and even today there is a lot about it which seems mystical. The birth of quantum mechanics came about when scientists realized as we delve into the world of atoms and such the laws of physics change. What is true at the macro stage may not work the same way in the miniature world. In other words Newtonian physics needed to be replaced for that tiny world.

What I find interesting is some scientists are saying we still haven’t found the smallest particle possible, even though some think we have found the God particle, the particle responsible for all the other particles. The Large Hadron Collider is the biggest particle smasher on the planet and the reason for its existence is scientists believe they can duplicate conditions which were thought to exist fractions of a second after the Big Bang, the event which was thought to have created the universe. There have been other theories on how the universe was created, but they have fallen out of favor with scientists. The Big Bang theory is almost universally accepted. The reason I am mentioning this is it ties in with quantum mechanics and quantum theory, because some of the things which exist are extremely small and need quantum mechanics to explain how they operate.

There is something called quantum information science. It is an encompassing science which has to do with quantum effects in physics. Included is some experimental topics which relate to quantum physics. It seems to be an incomplete science, because its theories cannot always explain some of the experimental research.

Quantum computing is the holy grail of computing and while some claim to have created a rudimentary quantum computer, it is thought that a quantum computer is yet to exist. So why is creating a quantum computer so important? It is important because the computer would be far more versatile since it would use not only 0s and 1s which represent on and off but also a stage which would be neither a 0 nor 1. It is claimed these computers would be far more powerful than anything which could be created that uses 0s and 1s. The race to create this computer is one so important it could change our lives completely and yet most people don’t realize this is the case. As a weapon it will be unbeatable, because it will be capable of defeating any defense derived using a traditional computer. It will be able to solve many of the problems with space travel and usher in a new era for our health. It will make the human race very powerful and enable us to become the star traveling race we were meant to be.

There is a quantum complexity theory and the theory itself is complex so I guess it has a good name. It is the study of complexity classes which are based on several things including quantum mechanics.

The word quantum has really been thrown around and because of this I think it is beginning to have its meaning changed. I recently saw a fishing reel advertised as quantum performance tuned fishing gear. If it continues to be used this way one of the meanings of the word could be “the most” as in it couldn’t be tuned any better in this case.

I saw a piece the other day talking about quantum biology. It suggest in recent years we have discovered nature may be using quantum processes. Some scientists now think the ability of birds to navigate the earth’s magnetic field may be due to a quantum process as does photosynthesis. It could turn out that nature knew about the quantum process far longer than man and when those first tiny cells were created they may have somehow employed the quantum process.
A lot of companies have included quantum in their names, there is almost an endless list and many times one has to wonder what the word quantum has to do with the product. I’ve seen the name used for rehabilitation companies, payment companies and even entertainment companies. Clearly the word was not chosen for its meaning, but more for the fact it sounds good even if it is not clearly understood.

When the old television show Quantum Leap came on the air at least it got its title correct. It would probably take a quantum computer to figure out how to go through a wormhole into a parallel universe if they exist and that was what the show was about.
The real question is why would anyone take the time to try and understand anything about quantum theory? How many of us ever tried to truly understand any of Einstein’s theories and why should we have? We are not scientists and probably have no reason to try and understand quantum theory. Having said that it would be good to just have a cursory understanding so when we read about it we have a general idea of what it means. I think knowing that it has to do with the nano-scale universe where things don’t always work the same way as they do in our macro-universe is probably a good start.