Physics can be a confusing subject, but it also has some incredibly interesting topics within it. Quantum physics, especially, can be difficult to visualize since it deals with subatomic particles and their unique interactions.
Quantum entanglement is one of the phenomena that affect these small particles. With quantum entanglement, two or more particles become linked together and no matter how far apart they are, they remain linked and share a quantum state. Since we cannot know the exact status of such small particles, quantum states are used to measure certain properties of a particle by taking into account the status of the particle (ex. position or momentum) as well as the probability of the particle having that status. The interesting thing about entanglement is that, when you know the status of one of the particles, you immediately know the status of the linked particle(s) since they share a common quantum state.
Within the past few years, scientists have been trying to see if the effect of quantum entanglement could go beyond the subatomic level. In 2018, a team found that certain types of bacteria could become entangled with photons when the light frequency matched up with the frequency of the electrons in the bacteria’s photosynthetic molecules (Specktor). From there, testing began on multicellular organisms.
A tardigrade is a type of microscopic organism that is known for its resiliency and ability to survive difficult conditions. As of 2021, a team has claimed that they successfully entangled a living, multicellular organism. For their experiment, they froze the tardigrades so they would enter a tun state, a natural state for tardigrades that protects them in certain environments—such as a freezing one.
Tardigrades in tun states become significantly smaller than when they are outside of tun states, which was important to the goal of the scientists’ experiment. From there, they made contact between the tardigrade and a qubit (quantum bit, the basic unit of information used in quantum computing, such as an atom, photon, or electron). This contact between the tardigrade and the qubit resonant frequency, similar to what happened with the bacteria. They then attempted to entangle the tardigrade-qubit with a second qubit and observed that, over several tests, the frequency of both qubits and the tardigrade all changed together.
After testing, the scientists took the tardigrade out of its tun state, and it was still alive. To these scientists, this meant that the tardigrade was the first successfully entangled animal in history.
Since the publication of their findings, the claim has been disputed based on whether or not the tardigrade itself truly became entangled, or if it simply existed alongside the entangled qubits. Douglas Natelson of Rice University based his skepticism on the statement that “the tardigrade does not act as a single quantum object” (Natelson).
Still, as the tardigrade experiment waits to be peer-reviewed, the ideas behind quantum physics and the strange interactions of quantum particles continue to be investigated.
About The Author
Oliver Ewy is currently a junior at Northwood High School. He has an interest in various scientific fields and would like to work in medicine in the future.
Sources:
Bonsor, Kevin, and Jonathan Strickland "How Quantum Computers Work" HowStuffWorks.com, 8 December 2000, https://computer.howstuffworks.com/quantum-computer.htm.
Natelson, Douglas. “No, a Tardigrade Was Not Meaningfully Entangled With a Qubit.” 18 Dec. 2021, http://nanoscale.blogspot.com/2021/12/no-tardigrade-was-not-meaningfully.html.
“Quantum Entanglement & Spooky Action at a Distance.” YouTube, uploaded by Veritasium, 12 Jan 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuvK-od647c.
Specktor, Brandon. “Frozen Tardigrade Becomes First ‘Quantum Entangled’ Animal in History, Researchers Claim.” Live Science, 20 Dec. 2021, https://www.livescience.com/tardigrade-quantum-entangled-experiment.
Sutter, Paul. “What Is Quantum Entanglement?” Live Science, 26 May 2021, https://www.livescience.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement.html.
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