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Michael Koelsch for Gotham Books
Physics professor James Kakalios' latest book, "The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics," blends pulp-fiction cultural references with up-to-date science and technology — as does Michael Koelsch's illustration for the book cover.
Physicist James Kakalios is famous for looking at the science behind comic-book superpowers, but his latest book is grounded in real-world science that can be as bizarre as anything the Watchmen could come up with: quantum mechanics.
In "The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics," Kakalios lays out his case that quantum physics is what makes real-life superpowers possible — such as the ability to watch a movie on your mobile phone or have your purchases tallied on a supermarket laser scanner.
Kakalios, a professor at the University of Minnesota, promises that his telling of the story is "math-free," and he mostly holds to that pledge. However, you do have to wrap your mind around Fermi-Dirac statistics, wave functions and Cooper-paired electrons. Fortunately, Kakalios leavens his scientific prose with examples drawn from pulp fiction and comic books. For instance, Kakalios points to Dr. Manhattan of the "Watchmen" graphic novel when explaining matter waves. How can Dr. Manhattan zip from Earth to Mars in an instant? By extending his de Broglie wavelength over 36 million miles, of course. Duh!
The bigger point behind the pulp-fiction references is that over the past century, discoveries in quantum physics have redefined the future. "Here we are in the 21st century," Kakalios told me. "We were promised jetpacks and flying cars, and we got cell phones and laptop computers instead. What did they miss? The writers of science-fiction pulp thought we would get a revolution in energy, but what we got was a revolution in information. That information revolution was made possible by semiconductors and solid-state physics, which in turn were made possible by quantum mechanics."
During an interview this week, Kakalios and I discussed the significance of quantum mechanics' amazing story, the science of superpowers and more. Here's an edited transcript of the Q&A:
Cosmic Log: Why does the world need another book about 'quantum mechanics made simple'?
Kakalios: There are many excellent books about quantum mechanics, the theory and the philosophical implications ... many books about the history ... not that many books about how useful quantum mecahanics is. One of the most amazing things about quantum mechanics is how practical it is. Back in the 1920s, scientists developed quantum mechanics because they were trying to understand how atoms interacted with light. A generation later, using the insights provided by those scientists, another generation of scientists developed the transistor and the laser. Now we have iPods, DVDs, cell phones, laptops, computers, television remote controls, pretty much everything without which life is not worth living. None of those are possible without the transistor and/or the laser, neither of which are possible without quantum mechanics.
Univ. of Minn.
James Kakalios
My book does not get into all sorts of theories about Schroedinger's cat, or questions about what's called the measurement problem, but it really shows how quantum mechanics can be applied in day-to-day life. How it helps explain how your computer hard drive works, how MRI lets doctors see inside you without the cut of a knife. It explains the difference between CDs and DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. It explains how your USB drive works.
I explain the three key ideas you have to accept — not so much to understand the details of quantum mechanics, but to understand how that quantum mechanics is applied in things like lasers or transistors. ...
Q: When you mention that there are three key ideas, I have to ask you what those three ideas are.
A: Right. Basically, it's that light, which is typically treated as an electromagnetic wave, actually is composed of discrete particles, namely photons. That matter, which is made up of discrete solid particles, actually has a wavelike nature. And that everything, matter and light, has an intrinsic momentum or spin. This last part is important to understand how electrons interact with each other, or how beams of light interact with each other. It makes the difference between understanding chemistry, understanding the periodic table of the elements, solid state physics and also understanding lasers. Without understanding that intrinsic momentum, we wouldn't get those last bits.
Q: Why should ordinary civilians like me need to know about this? What good does it do? After all, people can drive a car without knowing in detail how an internal combustion engine works.
A: That is of course true. Well, there are several reasons. One is that it really is an amazing story: how the work of a handful of scientists. driven just by their curiosity to understand how atoms and light behaved, led to developments that underlie the world we live in. There were certainly computers before transistors. They were large. They had vacuum tubes. They were bulky. They were expensive. If we still had vacuum-tube computers, to make them more powerful we would have to make them bigger. Only the federal government and a few large corporations would have them. So there would be no reason to link them together. There would be no World Wide Web, and hence no msnbc.com. It really is the foundation for our lifestyle, and many people don't realize how often they come into contact with quantum mechanics in their day-to-day life.
There's another important reason. My book is not a textbook, and you're not going to read the book and suddenly become a scientist or an engineer. But I think that nearly everyone who reads my book will be a citizen and a potential voter. As citizens, we're being called upon more and more to have informed opinions about science and technological issues — whether it's alternative energy, or nanotechnology, or the next generation of devices we should put our research efforts into. The more we understand the basic principles that underlie our lifestyle, the better able we'll be to make informed decisions.
Q: Are there aspects of this that you feel are particularly important for voters, considering that we have an election season upon us?
A: The bottom line is, when you see all of the benefits that have accrued to us through these applications of basic scientific research, you get a sense that basic science really matters. Recently there's been a tendency to denigrate scientists. People take the titles of certain research grants out of context and ridicule them. But people will explore different things for very different reasons. These are usually peer-reviewed proposals. Many proposals get rejected, but the ones that get accepted are projects where other scientists see true value.
The world is a knowable place, and science is a way of providing that knowledge. The philosophy that guides my book is the idea that science is not "just another opinion." You can argue about, say, the age of the earth, but science provides an answer. We may have to improve on the answer and refine it, but we all agree on the criteria for the answer. It's not just an opinion. It provides you with something you can really depend on. If you don't believe in science, that's fine, but at least put the cell phone down.
Q: You're well-known for your earlier book, "The Physics of Superheroes," and so I'm wondering whether there are some new trends in superhero movies or comics that are interesting from a scientific point of view.
A. Well, yes, it's interesting that Hollywood has been reaching out to scientists, both in films and television, trying to get the science correct. Ultimately, they want to tell an interesting story, and I certainly want that as well. When I go to the movies, I don't go with a pen and paper and a calculator and say, "My physics sense is tingling!" But anytime when an audience is looking at something and realizing that the science is wrong, or that the portrayal of the scientist is inaccurate, is a moment when they're not paying attention to the story. So the creators of shows in Hollywood realize they have a vested interest in getting the science right.
In addition, for us as scientists it's interesting because we can leverage the public's interest and use it to promote science and the scientific approach. So you have 14 million people watching "The Big Bang Theory," and you can argue about whether they're just presenting nerd stereotypes, but basically everyone on that show is smart, and they're respected because they're smart. There was a great line in an episode from last season where they bounced a laser beam off the moon ...
Q: Right, I remember that one.
A: ... And they said, "We are thereby proving that 60 years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, man put manmade objects on the moon." They left those laser reflectors up there. And, wow, that happened just within two generations. I never really made that connection before. It makes me proud to be a person, not even just an American. It makes me proud to be a human. This is our superpower. We are not super-strong. We can't fly. We can't turn invisible. Our superpower is our intelligence, and we should use it every day — because the forces of evil are always waiting.
More about quantum physics:
- How to spot quantum quackery
- The science of quantum computing
- Spooky quantum entanglement disturbed
- Quantum gravity tested inside elevator shaft
- Look for more quantum physics on msnbc.com
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," Alan's book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
" . . . you get a sense that basic science really matters."
Absolutely! And much as all the basic research has pushed modern wonders, it has also pushed job growth in this country - and around the world. But first, it pushed job growth right here in the great and exceptional United States of America.
In chapter 25 of the book "Getting Back To The American Dream" the "Minerva Medica" project is proposed as a similar job growth engine. It would use the minds of our home grown mathematics and science students to define the outcome costs of health care issues today. And, it would then do basic research to reduce or eliminate those outcome costs. It would look at the whole of the issue rather than the isolated research projects companies do to bring, usually expensive, solutions to market.
The Democrats and Republicans have no new ideas on the economy. That book provides several new perspectives with Minerva Medica being the top pick.
Schrödinger's uncertainty principle? I'm pretty sure Heisenberg would have something to say about that.
Ha, you're right ... let me rephrase that, preferably without using cats.
Quantum might be the most accurate theory to date, but it is still incomplete and flawed. I believe most physics should study their measurement devices, what they are composed of, and how they are making these measurements. Maybe then they would understand why measured time appears to shift and why an electron orbiting a proton appears as a probability smear, and not a particle. I have my own documented theory which I am having peer reviewed, it is way to long to post here.
I do too, but mine incorporates gravity within the Standard Model without using any extra dimensions or math. Using my theory, I was able to invent a low power, portable anti-gravity device which is being tested by several secret government agencies right now. I can't talk about it until they have finished. I'm on a horse.
This sounds like a very interesting book. QM is very strange in many respects but math and expirements have proved its tenants over and over again... and of course all our modern electronics would not work the way they do without QM. In terms or tech/science its a game changer.
@Sketco:
maybe he would, and/or maybe he wouldn't.
Tired - I'm guessing you have an understanding of physics from the high school level. Once you move on to college level physics both of the issues you mention are addressed. They are well understood, not problems with the theory.
The big issues are in rectifying forces like magnetism and gravity.
I think the author makes a very good point about science not being "just another opinion." It's one of the quirks of a democratic society; just because we all have the freedom to have an opinion doesn't mean that opinion is important or meaningful. Governments really should pay more attention to what scientists say.
Why oh why doesn't the US government sponsor a resource dedicated search to find an alternative to the use of fossil fuels? Human dependence on fossil fuels is our Achilles heel.
this is great news for the teabaggers!
Quantum physics is fascinating, for sure!
For sure!
The quantum aspects of modern computing devices are interesting, but most of it is focused on what happens when computing devices are behaving in logical binary ways, which is what happens most of the time but not all the time . . .
In the Windows universe, Visual Basic 6 was a particularly quantum programming language until Microsoft ruined it with all the .NET nonsense, but REALbasic on the Mac continues the great tradition of making it possible for programmers to have a bit of FUN with spacetime, typically beginning sometime after at least 18 hours of heavy coffee drinking and working with event chains when one discovers that by artificially triggering mouse events one can jump forward and backward in time, as well as suspend time generally by ignoring artificially triggered GUI events and moving everything into non-event based module code, but so what . . .
So what!
From my perspective, the most fascinating aspect of quantum physics is entanglement, which is the broader category that includes some of the stranger behaviors of event-driven programming languages, since among other things computer processors are quite able to engage productively in quantum interactions, although this fact is never revealed or promoted in traditional marketing, because it would be a bit too disturbing for all the so-called "normal" people who have not yet discovered that the aliens from outer space at this very moment are circling our planet in low-Earth orbit where they are searching frantically for the missing Mirror Matter Popcorn™ that they "misplaced" while on what they imagined would be a happy picnic in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico in the late-1940s . . .
Recently, researchers in Switzerland have hypothesized that it is possible to entangle photons in such a way that they human eye actually can see qubits, which is consistent with the facts (a) that the human ear can detect the tiny changes in atmospheric pressure caused by the vibrations of an electron and (b) that the human eye can detect the arrival of a single photon, even though it might take perhaps as many as eight such highly proximal arrivals over a very short time, but so what . . .
So what!
The frontal eye regions of the brain, working in conjunction with the visual cortex, blends all the information in such a way that the perception is correct, which is all that matters, really . . .
Really!
And based on these odd bits of information, I am doing a bit of research on the hypothesis that it is possible to do a bit of quantum entangling for a song in such a way that no matter how silly or completely and totally unknown the musical group might be initially, it soon begins to exhibit viral behaviors, which as best as I can determine is one of the primary requirements for a "hit song", such as the viral YouTube hit song "Bad Romance" (Lady Gaga), as well as the soon to be viral YouTube hit song by Miley Cyrus ("Who Owns My Heart"), for sure . . .
For sure!
And since there are no electric guitars in "Bad Romance", being an electric guitar player this is quite annoying to me, so the only logical response metaphorically is to spank Lady Gaga with a stellar and quite quantumly entangled parody which once I finish doing the "sparkles" will have a lot of electric guitar, really . . .
[NOTE: "Sparkles" are the apparently but not actually random bits of notes and phrases that happen every once in a while in songs in places that nearly always make no logical sense from a musical perspective, with one example of sparkles in the early-1960s being the hand-clapping that George Martin added to "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (Beatles), which serve two primary purposes, one of which is to add texture and the other of which is to capture and focus the attention of the listener--noting that the primary bit of quantum entanglement from which "I Want To Hold Your Hand" benefited was the touching scene of President John F. Kennedy's son holding the First Lady's hand during the funeral procession in Washington, D. C. a few days after the President was assassinated on November 23, 1963, which is all the more profound because John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote "I Want To Hold Your Hand" at least a month earlier and the song was recorded by the Beatles on October 17, 1963, with the song being released officially in the US in December 1963. In more modern times, sparkles have been extended well past hand-claps, maracas, castanets, and other typically Latin percussion instruments to include elaborate synthesizer embellishments and ornaments, as well as the occasional bit of top-center white noise, which is easily heard in "Bad Romance" when you listen with studio-quality headphones like the SONY MDR-7506 (a personal favorite) . . . ]
http://www.surfwhammys.com/Im-Going-Goo-Goo-Over-Ga-Ga-10-13-2010-MP.mp3
Really!
So far, even though "I'm Going Goo-Goo Over Ga-Ga" (The Surf Whammys) is in development and the only MP3 versions of the various intermediate flavors of the song are posted in discussion forums, which at this point maps to the basic rhythm section, lead vocals, and most of the sparkles being recorded, it is the top-ranked hit for a Google search on "going goo-goo over ga-ga", which is a bit beyond strange and certainly looks to be a stellar instance of this particular aspect of quantum entanglement . . .
[NOTE: Google suggests using "gaga" instead of "ga-ga", but the search results are pretty much identical, either way . . . ]
And my first quantum entanglement experiment is coming along nicely, as well, where among other things "(I Want) Angela Gossow's Underpants (Ya-Ya-Ya)" continues to own the Google search phrase "fabulous underpants" in the Videos category, and it continues to be in the Top 10 highest-ranked Truveo videos for "Armenian Christmas", which truly makes absolutely no logical sense, hence must be quantum, for sure . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecAFV-6rQ7Q
For sure!
These songs will be on The Surf Whammys fifth album ("Electric Underpants"), as soon as I get around to finishing the second, third, and fourth albums, and the current plan includes the possibility of a doing a parody of the new Miley Cyrus song "Who Owns My Heart" and its European Single music video, where the parody tentatively is titled, "I'm Feeling You Feeling Me Feeling You" (The Surf Whammys), although it will need to wait until Miley turns 18, all things considered, which is fabulous . . .
Fabulous! :)
Kakalios is quoted as having said, "Now we have iPods, DVDs, cell phones, laptops, computers, television remote controls, pretty much everything without which life is not worth living." Doesn't this strike anybody as a bit odd? Like all previous generations had lives that were not worth living? (I guess it's a good thing they didn't think so, or we wouldn't be here.)
:) If Quantum is complete then why does in not incorporate gravity? Why does the math work or is 98% accurate if is complete? Why can quarks or zero spin particles not be proved? Why do electrons and positrons disappear when they annihilate and then can spontaneously create out of nothing? Sounds a little magical to me and not based in science.
Maybe if one looks at universal time based on electrons and positrons instead of time being based of one of their qualities you would understand. We and all the devices we use to measure with are constructed of electrons and positrons. How do electrons and positrons measure time then? Their time is not effected by motion or gravity. Motion and gravity simply change one of their qualities. We live in an electron world in which time gets skewed by motion and gravity.
I posted a short version of my theory on my newsvine.