^{Credit: VENTRIS/Science Photo Library via Getty Images}

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation}

Quantum mechanics prohibits any quantum system from achieving a temperature that is equal to absolute zero.  However, using Laser cooling, which is a highly efficient spectroscopic technique, atomic samples could be cooled to near absolute zero thus bringing them to their lowest achievable quantum energy state. Scientists have been advancing this technique for decades now and an important question that arose recently is whether carbon molecules, which are an integral component of life on earth, could be laser-cooled.  

In order to cool down any atom or molecule using a laser the first step is to understand the mechanism behind the absorption and emission of light. Knowing this is important because the same process is responsible for reducing the kinetic energy of the atom/molecule and bringing it to the lowest possible energy state (look at the...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

In a previous article by Resonance Science Physical Chemist Dr. Ines Urdaneta an experiment that possibly demonstrates non-trivial quantum mechanical properties in microtubules was discussed. In the experiment, laser light shone on microtubules was absorbed, and had a delayed re-emission on physiologically relevant timescales [1]. The laser light was being absorbed by atoms and molecules within the microtubules and altering their properties before being re-emitted. This is a quantum mechanical process, and hints at potential quantum information processing in the biological system. In a seeming demonstration of how this process can be used in the transfer of information, a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have utilized a similar process to stream video with a quantum receiver [2].

The team had already used their quantum receiver to stream music with AM / FM reception [3], but now they...

Image: Ekaterina Kulaeva/Shutterstock 

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

In a past article entitled “The origin of quantum mechanics I: The Electromagnetic field as a wave” we had introduced the most relevant features of light as an electromagnetic field propagating in a 3D trajectory through space. Among the notions addressed we had explained the spectrum -or colors- of light, the components of the electromagnetic fields and their continuous, wavelike nature. In this second article we explain why the wavelike nature of light was not enough to explain certain behaviors of the interaction between light and matter; the understanding of such phenomena required introducing a “corpuscular” description of light that marked the origin of quantum theory, changing the paradigm with respect to classical physics.     

 The Black body Radiator and the quantization of the electromagnetic field...

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

Electromagnetic spectrum of light 

We are used to the words light and color. In scientific terms, light is made of electromagnetic waves that are mainly radiated from a radiative source (for instance, the sun) and absorbed by an object (absorbed by the electrons in the atoms that make the object, for instance, a T-shirt). An electromagnetic wave traveling through space is an energy oscillation propagating through space in 3 dimensions; traveling, for instance, from A to B along the red curved trajectory (known as circularly polarized motion) shown in the Figure below, depicting the complete movement which forms a helical trajectory. The axes x, y, and z serve as frames of reference for the movement. Note that the helical red curve has a 3D red tubular shadow to emphasize the 3D shape of this whole movement; it is a vortex spiraling helical through space. This red trajectory can be separated into two...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

The way we measure time is via frequency. To measure spatial dimension, we use a ruler. In classical mechanics we assumed that these measurement devices were static and would measure the same time and length no matter how an observer was moving or where they were located. However, in the late 19^th century it was discovered that this “common sense” perspective of the world is erroneous, and a new mechanics was necessitated. Hendrik Lorentz and Henri Poincare described how rulers contract and clocks measuring frequency have a dilation in the rate of "ticks" they read depending on the movement of a given frame of reference— which was described in relation to the aether in Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity smaller than that of light [1] by Lorentz and The New Mechanics [2] by Poincare. These contractions are known as Lorentz transformations and were generalized by Einstein...

^{By physicist Dr. Inés Urdaneta and biophysicist William Brown, research scientists at Resonance Science Foundation}

Although quantum mechanics— the physics governing the atomic scale— and general relativity— the physics governing the cosmological scale— are still viewed as disparate regimes within the Standard Model (Haramein's holographic quantum gravitational solution has not reached wide-spread mainstream appeal as of yet), experiments on the quantum scale are reaching the capability of measuring relativistic effects, therefore connecting in practice, what remains disconnected in theory.

Such is the case of the recently observed gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect—a quantum probe for gravity. In the electromagnetic version of the Aharonov-Bohm effect (in which the highly nonlocal quantum effect was first predicted) an electrically charged particle is affected by an electromagnetic potential, despite being confined to a region in which both the...

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a key theoretical limit on the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a quantum state, such as position and momentum, can be known. In the Bohr-Heisenberg formulation of quantum theory, also known as the Copenhagen interpretation, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is taken beyond a mere theoretical limit on the precision with which measurements can be made on quantum systems, and is instead interpreted as a fundamental property of the universe in which there is a certain level of intrinsic indeterminacy that places unsurpassable constraints on the degree of certainty with which any measurement of complementary variables can be made.

This of course, is according to the Bohr-Heisenberg theory of quantum mechanics, and essentially argues that the absolute uncertainty and irreducible limitations on the possibility to obtain certain knowledge about a quantum state reflects the inherent meaninglessness of actual, real...