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Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
51–60 of 94 posts
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you might have miscompared to a day instead of a second? Unless I missed something. But you're right that if we were to be observing the administratium reaction over one millisecond in the slowed scenario, it would take 2.73 nanoseconds at full speed, nothing like femtoscale.
> ...administratium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would have normally occurred in less than a second. Let x = administartium slowdown effect = 4 days / 1 second x = 4 days * 24 hours / day x = 96 hours * 60 minutes / hour x = 5760 minutes * 60 seconds / minute x = 345600 seconds Wrote this out to also convince myself, I am 35, did physics for 3 years in undergrad, and am apparently st…
Wow. Such a better illustration to compare 4 days to 3170 years than comparing 2.73 nanoseconds to a femtosecond. It makes me realize how linear my in-the-moment imagination of nano to femto is.
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#53You know, I think these sorts is scientific research explainers would be better if they actually just said what they did, what the insight was, what we can do now or what predictions we can now make.
I understand the desire to make the discovery accessible but this does not accomplish that. If we measure information by “what predictions can a reader now make that they couldn’t make before” then this press release is information free.
Instead we have a lot of words to attempt to create the impression of having read something.
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you might have miscompared to a day instead of a second? Unless I missed something. But you're right that if we were to be observing the administratium reaction over one millisecond in the slowed scenario, it would take 2.73 nanoseconds at full speed, nothing like femtoscale.
> ...administratium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would have normally occurred in less than a second. Let x = administartium slowdown effect = 4 days / 1 second x = 4 days * 24 hours / day x = 96 hours * 60 minutes / hour x = 5760 minutes * 60 seconds / minute x = 345600 seconds Wrote this out to also convince myself, I am 35, did physics for 3 years in undergrad, and am apparently st…
What's the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire?
1 million seconds == 11.57 days
1 billion seconds == 31.71 years
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, some of Darwin's original treatise - Origin of species of species in particular, is well worth a read.
From skimming Gallileo he could also be a nice read.His writing is entertaining and has a lot of examples, so could help in internalizing some basic ideas.
Yeah! Worth noting that both Galileo and Darwin intentionally published their most important works in the form of easily digestible „pop-science“ intended for the inclined layman. This was because they knew they faced near universal opposition in the scientific establishment of the time.
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#56Does anyone have any idea how a person could go about trying to understand the basics of what's going on here, even in just a hand wavey way? This is so far above my head it seems like magic.
There are chemical processes, most notably photochemical processes like photosynthesis, that funnel molecular states into new configurations so rapidly, that observation of the details of the reaction is impossible. This research simulated one class of such reactions (conical intersection reactions) by modeling the wave function that governs the time evolution of the reaction using a quantum computer, allowing them to run the reaction 100B times slower than occurs in nature, and to measure the quantum state evolution. They are thus able to get a clear picture of how the reaction proceeds, as measured by several different observables, from the simulation.
It's a direct demonstration of the utility of quantum computation in molecular modeling. The meta-relevance, to me at least, is that it demonstrates real progress in one of the areas where quantum computation is most likely to have an important impact.
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#57This stuff is straight up magic.
It's literally not
There's always someone who doesn't know all the dictionary meanings of "magic." From Google's copy of the Oxford English dictionary:
- a quality that makes something seem removed from everyday life, especially in a way that gives delight.
- something that has a delightfully unusual quality.
- very effective in producing results, especially desired ones.
- (informal, British) wonderful; exciting.
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#58They’ve discovered Administratium! https://www.mit.edu/people/dmredish/wwwMLRF/links/Humor/Admi...
Now that's some quality humor!
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#59Does anyone have any idea how a person could go about trying to understand the basics of what's going on here, even in just a hand wavey way? This is so far above my head it seems like magic.
There are chemical processes, most notably photochemical processes like photosynthesis, that funnel molecular states into new configurations so rapidly, that observation of the details of the reaction is impossible. This research simulated one class of such reactions (conical intersection reactions) by modeling the wave function that governs the time evolution of the reaction using a quantum computer, allowing them t…
Thank you, this is helpful.
Re: Scientists use quantum device to slow chemical process by factor of 100B
#60> This allowed them to design and map this very complicated problem onto a relatively small quantum device – and then slow the process down by a factor of 100 billion.
They say they mapped the problem.... So is this a model of an observation, or an actual observation?
> “Until now, we have been unable to directly observe the dynamics of ‘geometric phase’; it happens too fast to probe experimentally.
> “Using quantum technologies, we have addressed this problem.”
'cos if its a model, they are obviously still not observing whatever-it-is directly, right?
PS I'm pretty sure they are talking about their model.