Zeno effect' verified—atoms won't move while you watch

[obeygiant]

Link

The researchers observed the atoms under a microscope by illuminating them with a separate imaging laser. A light microscope can't see individual atoms, but the imaging laser causes them to fluoresce, and the microscope captured the flashes of light. When the imaging laser was off, or turned on only dimly, the atoms tunneled freely. But as the imaging beam was made brighter and measurements made more frequently, the tunneling reduced dramatically.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-10-zeno-effect-verifiedatoms-wont.html#jCp

What the hell? Are atoms shy? how do they know they're being watched?

mind boggling.


Just in case you didn't know what Quantum Tunneling is. youtube

 

[highlystrange]

This is one of the most bizarre findings I've come across in physics. Can there be something I don't get about this experiment?

 

[localoid]

... What the hell? Are atoms shy? how do they know they're being watched?

mind boggling. ...

Some have argued that reality (at least on the atomic level) does not exist until it's measured or observed.

For example, the American theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler suggested that reality is created by observers and that "no phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon," which raises the question: "Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?"

 

[obeygiant]

Some have argued that reality (at least on the atomic level) does not exist until it's measured or observed.

This is one of the most bizarre findings I've come across in physics. Can there be something I don't get about this experiment?

Does this mean that because we are conscious we have strange ability to control the universe at a quantum level?

 

[localoid]

Does this mean that because we are conscious we have strange ability to control the universe at a quantum level?

The more we observe and measure things on the quantum level the less we seem to know about this thing we call reality, at least on the quantum level. While no one seems able to say much with certainty, a wide variety of interpretations that attempt to explain quantum mechanics have been developed. Depending on the interpretation, the "control" that the observer has on "the universe" can vary greatly.

Although it doesn't attempt to address the issue of whether or not we have the ability to control the universe, the following article does address some of the strange aspects of the quantum realm: What Does Quantum Mechanics Suggest About Our Perceptions of Reality?

 

[ardent73]

Isn't the laser holding the atom in place, as in laser cooling?

 

[localoid]

Isn't the laser holding the atom in place, as in laser cooling?

No. The "Zeno effect" is directly related to "the measurement problem."

The measurement problem is explained in the video below, starting at 41:26...

 

[ProjectManager101]

I was watching a video related to that about if universe is analog or digital. Basically by that same fact of sub atomic particles not moving or not behaving like waves, the conclusion was that the universe is digital. That means is very high resolution and it can be a created environment, one we may no ever figure out or leave because we are part of that digital world. Something like that.

 

[iphonedude2008]

I was watching a video related to that about if universe is analog or digital. Basically by that same fact of sub atomic particles not moving or not behaving like waves, the conclusion was that the universe is digital. That means is very high resolution and it can be a created environment, one we may no ever figure out or leave because we are part of that digital world. Something like that.

Thats a pretty cool thought. Mind posting the link?

 

[obeygiant]

No. The "Zeno effect" is directly related to "the measurement problem."

The measurement problem is explained in the video below, starting at 41:26...

I just got sucked in to the first 22 minutes of that...

 

[ProjectManager101]

Thats a pretty cool thought. Mind posting the link?

Here you go, is in Spanish but you can change the caption to "English".

 

[Les Kern]

 

[ProjectManager101]

I was today at church and I was listening to the pastor telling us to be good because of the after world. And about the world being a digital simulation.... what came to my mind is that we may be some sort of personality test. Imagine you enter to an office and you have to place this helmet on for the personality test for the job. The test may last a few seconds but we are that simulated reality where we feel we live about 80 years. When we die we finished the test and now the person know how good or bad we are in that other word and we describe as "heaven" that can in reality be "what ever".

 

[obeygiant]

Does this phenomenon give any credence to the sensation that "we're being watched"?

 

[cdcastillo]

"Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?"

That theory implies that it doesn't. But it doesn't have to be us that are looking, although someone has to. This leads to a theoretical answer: God is the one that makes reality possible by watching over everything, thus, "enabling/creating reality" by his omniscience.

Mind blowing, right?

 

[obeygiant]

That theory implies that it doesn't. But it doesn't have to be us that are looking, although someone has to. This leads to a theoretical answer: God is the one that makes reality possible by watching over everything, thus, "enabling/creating reality" by his omniscience.

Mind blowing, right?

Well if the universe was continually being watched, the double slit experiment would have only one outcome.

 

[Meister]

Does this mean that because we are conscious we have strange ability to control the universe at a quantum level?

Yes

As Einstein put it: "Matter is mind stuff."

 

[mudslag]

There is a simplified explanation posted on reddit about this

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3pw7xy/one_of_the_oddest_predictions_of_quantum/