Aaron O'Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object

http://www.ted.com Physicists are used to the idea that subatomic particles behave according to the bizarre rules of quantum mechanics, completely different to human-scale objects. In a breakthrough experiment, Aaron O'Connell has blurred that distinction by creating an object that is visible to the unaided eye, but provably in two places at the same time. In this talk he suggests an intriguing way of thinking about the result.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• TED
• TEDTalks
• Aaron
• O'Connell
• physics
• visible
• quantum
• mechanics

[RitterBizDev]

Nothing new: Everyone knows that this one Peruvian pan flute playing band is playing in all pedestrian zones in the world at the same time!

[LasergunExtreme]

He doesn't explain the reason why very well.

[Gnosis2078]

@Sappharos From the Ted site: "Named Breakthrough of the year by Science Magazine, the experiment shattered the previous record for the largest quantum object, showing decisively that there is no hard line between the quantum and everyday worlds."

[mindnumber9]

"your connections to all the things around you literally define who you are". sort of like how my own spirit does things around the house to get my attention but i just keep ignoring myself? i'm so quantum.

[Sappharos]

@schizotypalgrasp Has this idea been brought into the scientific community?

[shivarajan]

Jus beautiful!

[PeopleBreeze]

Therefore, we have reasoned that spirituality is any knowledge that has not yet been proven to be scientific. We believe that there is a science to everything in life; we are simply not using all of our brain ability to implement or understand that science. As a result of that anything that the mind cannot comprehend is referred to as being mystical which off-course is the essence of spirituality. Peoplebreeze com

[PeopleBreeze]

There are plenty people who have gained access to spiritual means, but don’t have the scientific knowledge to relate the information. All knowledge is important to study spirituality, but those who have a good grasp of the scientific world are better equipped to study spirituality. peoplebreeze com

[PeopleBreeze]

Why must we think that our body should be at every place in order for us to be there? If our existence consists of a body and a soul why it is then we focus so much of our attention on the body when in fact the body is the least importance? Why can’t we travel through dimensions without the body – is this not a possibility?

[brokenbonzify]

The one thing physicists dont know is fashion.

[RamadaArtist]

@LasergunExtreme That's because TED doesn't let people talk for roughly three years, which is probably how long it would take to encompass all of the ideas that explain quantum activity "very well."