Freaky Physics Proves Parallel Universes Exist

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...lel-universes/

Updated April 05, 2010

Freaky Physics Proves Parallel Universes Exist
By John Brandon

- FOXNews.com


Look past the details of a wonky discovery by a group of California
scientists -- that a quantum state is now observable with the human eye --
and consider its implications: Time travel may be feasible.

Look past the details of a wonky discovery by a group of California
scientists -- that a quantum state is now observable with the human eye --
and consider its implications: Time travel may be feasible. Doc Brown would
be proud.

The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California
Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist
simultaneously in a parallel universe -- a multi-state condition that has
scientists theorizing that traveling through time may be much more than just
the plaything of science fiction writers.

And it's all because of a tiny bit of metal -- a "paddle" about the width of
a human hair, an item that is incredibly small but still something you can
see with the naked eye.

UC Santa Barbara's Andrew Cleland cooled that paddle in a refrigerator,
dimmed the lights and, under a special bell jar, sucked out all the air to
eliminate vibrations. He then plucked it like a tuning fork and noted that
it moved and stood still at the same time.

That sounds contradictory, and it's nearly impossible to understand if your
last name isn't Einstein. But it actually happened. It's a freaky fact
that's at the heart of quantum mechanics.

How Is That Possible?

To even try to understand it, you have to think really, really small.
Smaller than an atom. Electrons, which circle the nucleus of an atom, are
swirling around in multiple states at the same time -- they're hard to pin
down. It's only when we measure the position of an electron that we force it
to have a specific location. Cleland's breakthrough lies in taking that
hard-to-grasp yet true fact about the atomic particle and applying it to
something visible with the naked eye.

What does it all mean? Let's say you're in Oklahoma visiting your aunt. But
in another universe, where your atomic particles just can't keep up, you're
actually at home watching "The Simpsons." That may sound far-fetched, but
it's based on real science.

"When you observe something in one state, one theory is it split the
universe into two parts," Cleland told FoxNews.com, trying to explain how
there can be multiple universes and we can see only one of them.

The multi-verse theory says the entire universe "freezes" during
observation, and we see only one reality. You see a soccer ball flying
through the air, but maybe in a second universe the ball has dropped
already. Or you were looking the other way. Or they don't even play soccer
over there.

Sean Carroll, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology and a
popular author, accepts the scientific basis for the multi-verse -- even if
it cannot be proven.

"Unless you can imagine some super-advanced alien civilization that has
figured this out, we aren't affected by the possible existence of other
universes," Carroll said. But he does think "someone could devise a machine
that lets one universe communicate with another."

It all comes down to how we understand time.

Carroll suggests that we don't exactly feel time -- we perceive its passing.
For example, time moves fast on a rollercoaster and very slowly during a
dull college lecture. It races when you're late for work . . . but the last
few minutes before quitting time seem like hours.

Back to the Future

"Time seems to be a one-way street that runs from the past to the present,"
says Fred Alan Wolf, a.k.a. Dr. Quantum, a physicist and author. "But take
into consideration theories that look at the level of quantum fields ...
particles that travel both forward and backward in time. If we leave out the
forward-and-backwards-in-time part, we miss out on some of the physics."

Wolf says that time -- at least in quantum mechanics -- doesn't move
straight like an arrow. It zig-zags, and he thinks it may be possible to
build a machine that lets you bend time.

Consider Sergei Krikalev, the Russian astronaut who flew six space missions.
Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton University, says Krikalev aged 1/48th
of a second less than the rest of us because he orbited at very high speeds.
And to age less than someone means you've jumped into the future -- you did
not experience the same present. In a sense, he says, Krikalev time-traveled
to the future -- and back again!

"Newton said all time is universal and all clocks tick the same way," Gott
says. "Now with Einstein's theory of Special Relativity we know that travel
into the future is possible. With Einstein's theory of gravity, the laws of
physics as we understand them today suggest that even time travel to the
past is possible in principle. But to see whether time travel to the past
can actually be realized we may have to learn new laws of physics that step
in at the quantum level."

And for that, you start with a very tiny paddle in a bell jar.

Cleland has proved that quantum mechanics scale to slightly larger sizes.
The next challenge is to learn how to control quantum mechanics and use it
for even larger objects. Do so -- and we might be able to warp to parallel
universes just by manipulating a few electrons.

"Our concepts of cause and effect will fly out the window," says Ben Bova,
the science fiction author. "People will -- for various reasons -- try to
fix the past or escape into the future. But we may never notice these
effects, if the universe actually diverges. Maybe somebody already has
invented a time machine and our history is being constantly altered, but we
don't notice the kinks in our path through time."

On May 4, 1:27*am, "NewsToBeRead" wrote:
Freaky Physics Proves Parallel Universes Exist
By John Brandon

*- FOXNews.com


"When you observe something in one state,
one theory is it split the universe into two
parts," Cleland told FoxNews.com, trying to
explain how there can be multiple universes
and we can see only one of them.


Well, no wonder...
If Prof. Andrew Cleland, Ph.D., with a straight look on
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~clelandgroup/cleland.html
his face, was talking to anyone or anything associated
with the words, 'FOXNEWS,' the cognitive dissonance
alone must have been so overwhelming as to split
space/time itself into weird bifurcating meta-directions.
Let us hold a candle light vigil for Prof. Cleland's
speedy recovery, preferably near a very dense object
at as close to the speed of light as possible!

On Tue, 4 May 2010 01:27:02 -0700, "NewsToBeRead"
wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...lel-universes/


The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California
Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist
simultaneously in a parallel universe --

That would only be the case if the "Many-worlds interpretation" of
quantum mechanics turned out to be true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpr...cs#Many_worlds

At the current time, there are many other interpretations to choose
from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpr...ntum_mechanics

On May 5, 1:25*am, Surfer wrote:
On Tue, 4 May 2010 01:27:02 -0700, "NewsToBeRead"

wrote:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...s-proves-paral...

The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California
Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist
simultaneously in a parallel universe --

That would only be the case if the "Many-worlds interpretation" of
quantum mechanics turned out to be true.

I think you have it backwards.

The article claims experimental observation of a naked-eye object in
a *visible* superposition of states.

At the current time, there are many other interpretations to choose
from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpr...ntum_mechanics

Experiment determines the choice, if it's valid.


Mark L. Fergerson

On 5/5/2010 4:25 AM, Surfer wrote:
On Tue, 4 May 2010 01:27:02 -0700, "NewsToBeRead"
wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...lel-universes/


The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California
Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist
simultaneously in a parallel universe --

That would only be the case if the "Many-worlds interpretation" of
quantum mechanics turned out to be true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpr...cs#Many_worlds

At the current time, there are many other interpretations to choose
from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpr...ntum_mechanics

I really wish that faux news would cite their sources. I'm sure there's
a story there, but I can't find any papers on Cleland's site that look
anything like what was reported--the closest is an overview of nanoscale
mechanical resonators in Physics Today. Whatever the real story is, Fox
has garbled it as badly as AP did a while back with a story about this
earth-shattering new design for a ship that can wonder of wonders cross
the Atlantic on a single tank of fuel.