I’m currently working on a book about relativity, but I still spend a fair amount of time thinking about quantum issues. A lot of this won’t make it into the book, because I can’t assume people will have read How to Teach Physics to Your Dog before reading whatever the relativity book’s title ends up… Continue reading Spooky Action at High Speed
Category: Quantum Optics
Teleportation of Toddler Toys
Today is the official release date for the paperback edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, so I wanted to write up something cool about quantum physics to mark the occasion. I looked around the house for inspiration, and most of what we have lying around the house is SteelyKid’s toys. Thus, I… Continue reading Teleportation of Toddler Toys
Dance of the Photons by Anton Zeilinger
I hadn’t heard anything about Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation before it turned up in my mailbox, courtesy of some kind publicist at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, otherwise I would’ve been eagerly anticipating it. Anton Zeilinger is a name to conjure with in quantum optics, having built an impressive career out… Continue reading Dance of the Photons by Anton Zeilinger
Interference of Independent Photon Beams: The Pfleegor-Mandel Experiment
Earlier this week, I talked about the technical requirements for taking a picture of an interference pattern from two independent lasers, and mentioned in passing that a 1967 experiment by Pfleegor and Mandel had already shown the interference effect. Their experiment was clever enough to deserve the ResearchBlogging Q&A treatment, though, so here we go:… Continue reading Interference of Independent Photon Beams: The Pfleegor-Mandel Experiment
Relativity on a Human Scale: “Optical Clocks and Relativity”
As mentioned in yesterday’s post on
Entangled in Sports Analogies
Having written in defense of analogies in physics yesterday, I should note that not all of the analogies that are brought out in an attempt to clarify physics concepts are good. For example, there’s this incredibly strained opening to a Science News article on entanglement: If the Manning brothers were quantum physicists as well as… Continue reading Entangled in Sports Analogies
Physics Is All About Analogies
Regular commenter onymous left a comment to my review of Warped Passages that struck me as a little odd: The extended analogy between the renormalization group and a bureaucracy convinced me that she was trying way too hard to make sophisticated concepts comprehensible. Also, I’m not really sure that analogies are the best way to… Continue reading Physics Is All About Analogies
Poll: Religious Beliefs of Scientists and Science Blog Readers
A big and important argument about religion and science has flared up again on Twittter. It occurs to me, though, that nobody has taken the obvious step of polling people about their actual beliefs, so let’s see if we can’t settle this question with (social) SCIENCE!: I would prefer to be a member of:Market Research… Continue reading Poll: Religious Beliefs of Scientists and Science Blog Readers
What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics
A quick check-in from Tuscaloosa, where we’re getting ready to head out for the football tailgating. While I’ve got a minute, though, here are the slides from my public lecture, via SlideShare: What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics View more presentations from Chad Orzel. These are probably less comprehensible that some of my… Continue reading What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics
Quantum Statistical Poll: Favorite Boson?
A fairly straightforward question: quantum physicists divide the world into two categories of things, fermions and bosons. What’s your favorite object having integer spin? What’s your favorite boson?online survey Superpositions of answers, while allowed in properly symmetrized wavefunctions, are not valid responses to this poll.