Bizarre 'Schrodinger's Cat' Comes Alive in New Experiments by Jesse Emspak

http://www.livescience.com/38339-experiments-bolster-schrodingers-cat-idea.html

New research bolsters the validity of Schrodinger's Cat, a thought experiment suggesting a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time. (Shown here, an illustration of the quantum teleportation of 'Schrodinger's Cat' wave packets of light from a past physics study.)
Credit: Image courtesy of Science/AAAS

The strangeness of the world of the very small that allows a particle to be in two states at once may extend to larger scales, two new studies reveal. If the research proves true, that would bolster the validity of a thought experiment suggesting a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time.

The idea, called Schrödinger's Cat after the physicist,Erwin Schrödinger, who proposed it in 1935, goes like this: Put a cat in a box with a vial of poison gas. The vial opens when a tiny piece of radioactive metal emits an alpha particle (the nucleus of a helium atom) as it decays. Emitting an alpha particle is a quantum-mechanical process, which means that whether it happens in any given stretch of time is basically random.

Quantum mechanics says that it's impossible to know whether the radioactive decay has happened (and the cat is dead) unless one measures it — that is, unless the alpha particle interacts with the environment in some way that an observer can see. Until that happens, the alpha particle is emitted and not emitted at the same time. The cat is both dead and alive, a state called superposition. Opening the box is a measurement — one sees the effect of an alpha particle as the dead cat, or the absence of an alpha particle as a live one. [The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

In the two new studies, detailed in the July 21 issue of the journal Nature Physics, researchers used particles of light, or photons, to test the limits of such superposition. If there is no limit to how many particles or photons you can put into a quantum system, that means the cat really is both dead and alive at once, and the act of measuring its state makes the mathematical formulation that describes it (called a wave function) "collapse" into a definite state, alive or dead.

Another possibility, called the many worlds interpretation, would be even weirder: that all the possible states are real, and when the wave function collapses to one state, we're just experiencing one of many universes that exist simultaneously, in which every possible outcome happens. When the wave function collapses, we (and the cat) remember one history — a dead cat — but there's another universe where the cat is alive.


Entangling photons

Both experiments, one conducted at Canada's University of Calgary and the other at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, involved enough photons to be seen with the naked eye, which shows that their quantum properties could be made macroscopic, researchers say.

In the two experiments, researchers measured the quantum states — a group of physical properties, including polarization and phase — of the light using polarization, or the angle through which a photon rotates. One can see polarization while wearing polarized sunglasses and tilting one's head while looking at the screen of a smart phone or computer. The screen will look black until the head is tilted at a certain angle.

While the exact technique was slightly different in the two experiments, both teams amplified the states of a single photon, entangling it with many other photons, and then restored it to its original state. When a photon gets entangled with other photons the state of the photon is affected by the states of the particles it is entangled with.

The polarization measurements after restoration told the researchers that the quantum entanglement with other photons had happened. [How Quantum Entanglement Works (Infographic)]

The scientists are now trying to see how large a quantum system can get before it loses its quantum nature. "It's one of the few big unanswered questions in modern physics," said Alexander Lvovsky, a professor of physics and lead author of the University of Calgary paper.


Superposition states

The new experiments aren't the only ones to show superposition states.

In 2010 scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara built a resonator — basically a tiny tuning fork — the size of the pixel on a computer screen, and put it into a superposed state, in which it was both oscillating and not oscillating at the same time. But that wasn't as extensive a system as those in the two recent papers.

"That experiment corresponds to one quanta," said Nicolas Gisin, a professor at the University of Geneva, who led the Swiss research team. "Imagine a nano-mechanical motor showing no oscillation and 500 states. That would be ours."

In the future, both groups will try to expand to bigger systems, where instead of translating a quantum state from a single photon to a large set of photons, they will try to translate the states of one large group to another. But that experiment will be a tough one, because in order to preserve quantum effects, groups of atoms or photons must be completely isolated from the surrounding environment, or the superposition states will be spoiled. "There are a lot more angles of attack," with more particles, Lvovsky said.

Original article on LiveScience.com.

Past Life Regression & Life Between Lives Regression

Adults Need to Have Fun Too

What are the activities most important to me that reinvigorate me?

1.       walking, relaxing, thinking in quiet neighborhoods with nature-reminding environments

2.       having deep discussions and fun times with friends; spending time with family

3.       Looking at pictures and watching videos of beautiful natural scenery that I would love to travel to     

4.       listening to beautiful, peaceful music and motivational music

5.       sf  

6.       learning about Brian Kim’s knowledge on self-improvement

7.       eating

8.       adventure hobbies, other hobbies & interests (PLAY TIME!)

Even as adults we need to play and have fun. The things above except for number five, are not play time! It’s ridiculous to think that sometimes, when we are feeling so overwhelmed by life to the point where we know something is wrong but for some odd reason, just can’t pinpoint it. But after much contemplation, you get an epiphany in realizing what was wrong, only to realize how simple your epiphany was. For me, I’m not having any fun! The stuff I do and want to work on challenge me, will improve me, and will one day to give me a lot of satisfaction, but they are not the same as having play time and having fun. I once read in The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, that the opposite of boredom is not happiness, but excitement, or that excitement is the closest synonym to happiness. I've been thinking and dreaming of living a life of far more excitement and adventure and my inability to pursue adventure is killing me inside. My soul is screaming out for something more than this mundane existence. Prolonged boredom is serious. I was quite depressed for much of the day before my epiphany, which has somewhat raised my level of energy.

The inevitable question that comes to me now is, how do adults have fun? Kids don’t seem to have trouble having fun. I guess a lot of young adults think of parties, but I don’t drink. How can I have fun?    

My Goals: Now and In the Future (Altered as My Life Goes On- First Update From Original)

1. To be the nurse who makes the difference in a crisis. To be the leader, a life-saver, and the difference maker in a crisis.

2. To write about the sciences that are merging with what Dolores Cannon's work has found as well as other sources regarding Spirituality.

- Read Lupus book 

3. To cut down on body weight and develop a strong body weight to strength ratio. To train my body towards a mountain climber's level of fitness.



Goals to Pursue Later in Life:

4. To live a life of excitement by pursing Adventure-related activities, hobbies, and travel. (From Lion King Days)

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances without own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” - Joseph Campbell

http://coachingtohappiness.com/follow-your-bliss-a-collection-of-joseph-campbell-quotes.html

5. To develop strong, deep, emotional connection with others based off honesty and the sharing of intimate thoughts, feelings, experiences (life and everyday exp.), beliefs, and values. (From Lion King Days)




What my past goals have looked like and how they have altered:
http://ml-thewayiam.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-many-goals-now-and-in-near-future.html
<--Original

*I post this from "My Goals" page so I can compare and contrast after time has gone by and see how they've changed and which ones I've stuck to more.

Prediction

I just want to say that I don't think I will really reach my true potential until I am completely independent, away from my family, while living in an environment that is suitable to my personality.

Part Three: Almost Losing Lucky & The Lessons I Failed to Learn

Post First Originally Published On Tuesday, July 9th, 2013, 6:55 PM

Many of my pictures I have of Lucky came in her later years with my sister getting a camera along with my brother and I getting Android phones. Some of Lucky’s happiest pictures came at a time after Senior year high school graduation. That summer, before, we headed to the airport, we brought her to run and play at the widespread, grassy field of my very close by elementary school. This was not the first time we had brought her there to exercise. We had this tennis ball launcher that we would use for her to sprint and chase the ball similar to that of a lion sprinting after an antelope. Her ability to run with vigor and a bounce in her step from being excited of playing a simple game of fetch could always light up my day.

Bringing her to my elementary school does not yield all wonderful memories though. During sophomore year of high school, I lost Lucky. I had developed an irresponsible habit of letting Lucky run on the field to do whatever she wanted, while I played at the basketball courts with my brother and Amrit, whom at the time, we were pretty good friends. The field is spacious but is gated all around with one small exception. Now after the two previous times of having Lucky nearly running off, it’s completely reasonable to be thinking, “why in the world would she be playing in the field without supervision?” I sigh when I type this. I got into a comfortable routine where I felt it was relatively safe that I would always be able to find her when I was done playing ball. There were times where the sun had set 4/5ths of the way, and I would call out her name and/or look for her on the field, and every single time, I had found her after no more than 20 seconds. I realized in the back of my mind that it was not 100% fool proof, but at the same time, since it had always worked before with no real problem, I fell into the temptation of being able to give Lucky lots of time outside, along with myself having fun. Well, one Friday evening, my luck changed. It didn’t feel different from any other day. I let her run loose on the field while I played ball with my brother and our friend. But when it came around evening time, I looked towards the field to obtain a location on Lucky. I did not see her immediately upon my scan. I walked towards the field and continued my scan left to right, to only not see her again. I was hoping my brother would say, “Oh, I see her. There she is”, to give me a sense of relief. At this point, I’m sure I started to worry. My pace towards the field sped up to a slight jog with more anxiety filling my voice. I could not find her. My brother quickly ran down the aisles where the classrooms were to see if he could locate her. Negative thoughts came to my mind. All these thoughts that I previously suppressed and denied that wouldn’t happen to me were popping into my mind. My brother showed up, nothing. There was one different thing today than compared to all previous days, there was a group of high school kids from my graduating year that were in the parking lot adjacent to where we were. In my panic, I did not care of the fact that these were people I did not know or people I never talked to. I quickly approached them and asked if they had seen a Golden Retriever anywhere. One of the guys told me that he noticed a dog go down one of the streets (not a busy street) and thought it was perhaps just that home’s owner’s dog. I felt a bit better, at least we had a location. I ran down the street corner to where he said he saw the dog to look if I could see Lucky. Nothing. I ran back to the group wondering what to do. Some of his friends decided to drive around in the vicinity. As slow as the clock seemed to tick, the sun had been setting for some time and daylight was nearing its end. I was still frantic in my head. I couldn’t show emotion and weakness in front of my friend. My friend offered to drive my brother back home. I didn’t know what he meant. Drive home? Did he mean drive around in the vicinity? We were good friends at the time so I did not feel that he was ditching out on us. But amidst the stress from the situation, this thought did come through my head. Not knowing what else to do, I stayed behind, just in case if my high school cohorts in the parking lot did find something. I remember thoughts of “Oh my God, what have I done?”, “Jesus I’m going to kill myself”, “How am I going to live with myself if I can’t find her or if she gets killed?”, going through my head. I said a prayer in my mind the entire time this was happening. While waiting in the parking lot, feeling overwhelmed and guilty of so much of what had just happened, my mom’s cell phone - which I used back then – ran. It was from home. I had no idea what was going to be said. I opened the receiver. It was my brother’s voice. In that split millisecond where his voiced entered my ears, I was not only listening to the words but his tone of voice for either sadness or relief. He told me that someone had left Lucky leashed up on our front gate. Someone had found her and it even looked like they had bought a brand-new, bright pink leash that was tied to our gate. Oh my god. How lucky was I. How fortunate was Lucky to be found safe. I expressed my gratitude towards my high school cohorts for their help. I wish I could have been more expressive of how appreciative I was of their concern. In the future, I hope I can develop myself and feel comfortable showing my emotions in times of vulnerability. I remember walking back through the basketball courts, which by this time were all empty, looking up at the sky and horizon with the last light of the day peering over the westward mountain down into the valley. I must have blown a deep sigh of relief. But from this lesson, I took away one lesson, when I really needed to take away two. I knew I could not let her run on the field by herself again. Sadly, this was the only lesson I took away from it. I took away a lesson on a task-oriented level where I learned I could not let her loose on the field unsupervised. But failed to see that what I needed to learn was to be completely responsible for her, as well as, to be appreciative of the time I had with her. I was appreciative of the fact that I had gotten another chance with her. But not the fact that I needed to be appreciative of the time I had with her or to be responsible for tending to all her needs. To not let her run by herself is not the lesson I should have learned. But not wanting to be completely responsible for the life that I wanted and chose to have was an area of my personality that I needed growth in.

From this day on, I found myself conflicted between walking her or playing ball with my friend. Because of the school work that I had and my mediocre studying habits, school work and SAT preparation took up a lot of my day after school, as they did for many Asian students my age. If I am honest with myself, walking Lucky was less fun than playing ball and on days that were already constricted on time, often times doing what I enjoyed won in priority over walking Lucky. This gradual development took place well into my years in college where we would only be seeing Lucky on the weekends. If I was feeling unproductive that day, I may have wondered if I felt like walking Lucky that day. I would convince myself that she could go another day without a walk. From there, often times, my motivation to walk her developed out of feeling bad for her being inside all day. This led to walking her, feeling like a chore I had to do. And this developed to, often times, relinquishing the task of walking her solely to my 14 minute older, more mature and responsible twin brother. I enjoyed the time where I would walk by in the house and see her. I would go pet her here and there, roll a tennis ball around with her from time to time, or try and pathetically chase her around the backyard when she would pick up a ball in her mouth and make a playful sound like that of a bark and a howl indicating that she wanted to play. The only other constant interaction I had with her was when I was eating and she would come sit by me, waiting for me to give her some of my food.

During senior year of high school, I became more interested in hanging out with friends outside of basketball. And the day that summer after senior year of high school, before heading off to the airport, my brother and I had fun playing with Lucky. We took some of Lucky’s best pictures then. We brought Lucky to the field to play much of her younger and middle years, but in her latter years after the incident of her getting lost, the conflict I had within myself between wanting to play ball versus giving Lucky lots of time to run on the field, I ended up electing to walk her instead of letting her run and exercise intensely, the way she had the most fun. In hindsight, I feel I should have taken her to the field to run and play with supervision instead of simply walking her around the neighborhood. Or maybe even do both.

That day, before we left for the airport, we planned for Lucky to stay at the house of a good acquaintance of ours. Although we were not leaving her alone with minor supervision and care or sending her to a dog hotel, which she hated, I could still tell that she was somewhat apprehensive about being left behind when my family and I left from my good acquaintance’s house. The first couple times in her life, when we would go on vacations, she would go to dog hotels, and although I do not know how she felt being there specifically, her tail would always tuck between her legs when we had to go there and she would want to be the first one out when we were there to pick her up. I do not judge her one bit for being scared of places like this. Many dogs are. I do want to note that the friend I left Lucky with, it is my honest opinion that he did a more consistent and quality job than I did in taking care of Lucky. Yes, he was doing it for a fee, but regardless. I love my dog a lot. Does that mean a monetary value can be worth greater than my love for my dog? No, it’s not, because money is not a currency that can be exchanged with your relationship with your companion. To do so is not only morally reprehensible but speaks to the character and values of oneself. It’s a similar question to compromising what you stand for, what you’ve worked hard for all your life for zeros on a check. I’m not saying that when it comes to a certain number of zeroes where you have to carefully squint your eyes to count to be accurate isn’t at all tempting, but there is no money on earth that will give you happiness if you are lost in your identity, lost in what you believe in, and living a life without a purpose. To accept it would be to trade your life story, your meaning in life, and in essence, all worthwhile meaning in your life once you accept a trade of this caliber.

Lucky has always despised being left behind, and I have played some cruel jokes on my part. There were times where I wanted to play ball while Lucky was with me so I would let her run for 20-30 minutes with supervision, then leash her up near the basketball courts while I played so she could at least have a change in scenery and not sit inside the house the rest of the time. Then when I was done playing, I would pretend to walk away to hear her whine and bark while stammering her little paws. I know it sounds cruel. I did it because I found it cute how she would get so serious over a “little” joke from my end. In hindsight, I know her anxiety to her behavior of being left behind was stimulated and persisted by me when I did these “jokes”. I did them around five times throughout the 10 and a half years I had with her, so it was not frequent, but at the same time my actions indirectly led to what would be her eventual passing in a seemingly small and seemingly insignificant way that at the time, was due to massive ignorance on my part, and would lead to a grand scheme of things “coming back to bite me in the ass”. If you are an outside reader reading this for the first time, you are understandably confused at what I am talking about. It’s hard for me to put a date for the start of what was to come but if there were a date when my nightmare started, it would be Friday, August 17th, 2012. 

Part Two: Lucky's Young Years

Post First Originally Published on Tuesday, July 9th, 2013, 6:53 PM

It’s 5:16 AM of Wednesday; May 22^nd, 2013 as I write this. I’m writing this in the living room, looking out the windows where the sun has barely risen yet. There’s a beautiful, benign light in the horizon over some short trees from my eastwardly facing neighbors. I love this moment of the day. It’s awe-inspiring. It’s quiet, beautiful, and it’s mine. Where to start? I remember the day I got my puppy and future beloved dog. After doing some chronicling and thinking back, my story with Lucky started in the early summer of 2002. I had just finished 3^rd grade and summer was to be looked forward to with no academic work needing to be done yet, back at that age. I must have broached the topic of wanting a dog several times to introduce the idea to my parents and get the discussion going. My mom was relatively open to the idea while my dad must have been the harder of the two to convince. Through the discussion of dogs, came the breed of dog that I wanted. It was down to two breeds: German Shepherds or Golden Retrievers. My grandparents on my mother’s side had a German Shepherd when my mom was quite a young child. While I liked German Shepherds - as our neighbor owned two German Shepherds – I really wanted a Golden Retriever. The Disney movie, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, strongly influenced my love for Golden Retrievers. The natural scenery, the touching storyline involving the animals’ struggles, the love and self-sacrifice for each other and for their human companions, put together with the befitting music engraved an unforgettable impression on me.    

I do remember the day, even at that age, of my rendezvous with my future dog. We had been thinking for some time, and my mom found a Golden Retriever breeder in the yellow pages. That one, sunny, summer afternoon, I was sure it was the day. I could feel it in the air, a sense of excitement manifesting itself as my brother, sister, and I were all scurrying around the house, cleaning up and picking up any objects that may be hazardous to a puppy. The breeder’s house was in a suburban neighborhood over an hour away. That was fine with me. More anticipation builds during the wait. I remember what the breeder’s house looked like; it was a corner house. In the front yard, they had the puppies in the puppy exercise containment pen. I had told my mom that I wanted a female one because I wanted her to have puppies so I wouldn’t have to get another dog- yes I realize now that this is out of the league of possibility. Out of the litter, one puppy drew our attention more than all the other ones. When we got there, it was around evening and most of the other puppies were napping. This puppy was a female. She interacted with us while chewing at a sock, as puppies do. My mom preferred a male dog so she asked to see the parents. Of course I was much shorter at that age but the father dog was huge as my mom was also surprise at his size. My mom made the comparison of the father dog to the size of a bear. Uncomfortable with how big the male puppies could potentially become, it was clear which puppy we would chose, or more accurately, would choose us. My mom cradled our puppy home in the car. She sat in the middle row of our big, blue, dodge caravan, holding the gem that was the center of attention. I sat in the back row, which I was highly unaccustomed to. About half way back home, while brainstorming potential names, she let out her first wine. Here she was, with us, for the first day of many to come.

Her first steps through our home were comparable to as if I had entered the Taj Mahal, taking slow, delicate steps and observing everything in the surroundings with novelty and awe. We followed her closely to make sure she did not attempt to chew on anything that we had missed when cleaning up the floor. Inexplicably, she squatted down and went number two right in the middle of our kitchen floor. I had promised my mom I would be responsible for picking up her Uh-Oh’s, but being foreign at the time, I thought it was disgusting and ended up having my mom do the job. We set up her puppy pen on the only floor with hard tiles so that it would not absorb any urine in case she went. Just a little later after we situated her into her containment pen, she let out loud, poignant barks, one right after another. Barks which were much more high pitched than I expected a puppy to be able to make. I even joked to my brother that our puppy was just making a loud introduction and marking her arrival to the “commoners”. I remember not knowing how to deal with her behavior and even felt like we may have made a mistake of getting a puppy during her continuous barking fit. Ha! Silly me! Before bed, I remember my mom stopping by in our rooms, cradling our puppy like a baby to say goodnight. She looked adorable. The next morning, we got up early to let her out to the backyard to do her business. I have some pictures of her as a puppy in the backyard. I am uncertain if these pictures are from that day though. In terms of memories of her as a puppy, these are the main ones that readily come to mind. I have a few other quick clips of memories of her as a puppy but they are just glances that come to mind. I do very vaguely remember getting her name tag made with her name and information engraved onto the metal tag, which by that time, we had come to the agreement that her name, would be, Lucky.  

As in life though, there are the not-so-fond memories she experienced growing up. On that July fourth, we decided to bring her to a firework show. Needless to say, due to ignorance on our part, she became panic-stricken and took off after slipping out of her collar. I wanted to get a hold of her. I didn’t care about the fireworks. But my mom took action and told me to stay to continue to watch the fireworks while she went after Lucky. I doubt I was enjoying the fireworks very much. I had no idea how my mom got a hold of Lucky and to this day, still do not know, but thank god she did. I remember being in the van, sitting quietly, looking at her, and stroking her fur as she layed curled up in the middle row, resting. Lucky would serve to be a beloved companion in my life, along with aiding my growth through understanding myself, and helping me learn a couple important life lessons. It was not her time to go. It was way too early. Ever since that year though, she would be terrified during every Fourth of July period when legal or illegal fireworks would be set off.   

My dad had left the door open. As a young adolescent now, Lucky had escaped outside the vicinity of our backyard and home. I hear the commotions of my mom yelling that Lucky was outside in the front yard. I rushed out to see my young, bouncy, energetic girl frolicking around in the grass in the front yard. Acting out of fear of her getting lost, injured, or worse from a bypassing car, I chased after her, just trying to get a hold of her and wrestle her down. I smirk as I write this as I know how ineffective and silly that plan was. Getting a piece of chicken would have been a better idea. I fortunately was able to get a hold of her with the help of my brother. It was all the way on the other side of the street, wrestling her down when my hand finally got some control of her, and with one of my classmates at the time looking at me. Embarrassing, but I didn’t have a choice.

In Lucky’s young years, our overgrown, lush backyard was her home. I was often more worried about her being alone than she probably was. She would run and jump on the windows facing our backyard, look at us inside inquisitively, then scratch the windows with her paws to indicate her wanting something. The winter of 8^th grade, for our family trip to Taiwan, we planned to have one of our good friends at the time come by once or twice a day to make sure she was fed, had water, and to check up. That winter, there were strong winds and rain that tore through, and I recollect when I first saw her after coming back, Lucky gave me the impression of being this wild animal with disheveled fur covered in patches of mud, yet having this golden fur that shone through the dirt as she ran excitedly to our arrival. There were tree branches all over the place. It certainly looked like there was a windy storm and yet, she was fine tooth and nail.

Sometime during my late elementary school and middle school years, Lucky would be causing trouble for the neighbors. We had a couple loosened, wooden planks in the fence due to the repeated hits which were a result of all the times when my brother and I would play ball in the backyard. One day, while I was at school, Lucky got through the fence and from what my mom told me, Lucky went wild there and broke a couple things in their backyard and home. I do not mention any of this to disparage Lucky for how she was at a youthful age, but to demonstrate the entirety of who she was.