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aspiegirl2
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04 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Google FastClip (PopSci): Marine Algae Found to Harness Power of Quantum Mechanics

This is so cool. It almost sounds like Star Trek. Maybe in the future we'll really be saying "Beam me up, Scotty!" lol. For the time being, though, it sounds like an awesome discovery for passing information or communicating from one place to another. They said that these plants could transfer energy from one place to another, and they were thinking about relaying information. Maybe they could use this concept in some of the space missions (if they aren't already). That way we could have almost instantaneous communication between, say, a Mars Rover and NASA, or (hopefully) people on the Moon to NASA, or another place. I don't know about anyone else, but I think it's a cool finding. I'm not familiar with a lot of physics, but I thought that it was interesting.


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0_equals_true
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04 Feb 2010, 4:36 am

All plants use quantum mechanics. That is why photosynthesis is 90% efficient. It is more a question of us harnessing these "organic" particle technologies. There is already promising research in this area. Lately they have used it to produce hydrogen, but it is still at a small scale.

Quantum computing is one use, but the more imminent concern is solving the energy crisis. Ideally we would all like our own source of free or very cheap energy. Nobody could or should be allowed to patent it or control it entirely. It would help against poverty.



aspiegirl2
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04 Feb 2010, 6:50 pm

That sounds awesome. That way people could be much more independent and not pollute the world nearly as much as we are doing now. I bet that the oil companies won't be too thrilled about the idea, though. Hopefully they won't try to patent the technology. Although if Monsanto could get away with patenting GMOs, then I'm not sure what they couldn't patent. It will be interesting to see if they do get this technology to a bigger scale.


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richie
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06 Feb 2010, 6:19 am

You also might want to check these out:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... s_20100205

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -and-photo

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... omputation

Recently physicists have demonstrated the possibility of using Quantum effects to
teleport information over vast distances; the same could in theory teleport energy.....

http://www.physorg.com/news184597481.html


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Tensu
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06 Feb 2010, 10:29 pm

0_equals_true wrote:
All plants use quantum mechanics.


Algae are not plants. they are protists.

I got kicked out of collage for pointing that out to my ecology teacher.

totally worth it. :D *

p.s. blue-green algae are a bacteria.

*there's a little more to the story than that.



aspiegirl2
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06 Feb 2010, 10:43 pm

Tensu wrote:
0_equals_true wrote:
All plants use quantum mechanics.


Algae are not plants. they are protists.

I got kicked out of collage for pointing that out to my ecology teacher.

totally worth it. :D *

p.s. blue-green algae are a bacteria.

*there's a little more to the story than that.


That's awesome! Sometimes professors (not all of them, just some of them) get mad when students tell them about a mistake that they made. What was the rest of the story?


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Tensu
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06 Feb 2010, 10:55 pm

aspiegirl2 wrote:
Tensu wrote:
0_equals_true wrote:
All plants use quantum mechanics.


Algae are not plants. they are protists.

I got kicked out of collage for pointing that out to my ecology teacher.

totally worth it. :D *

p.s. blue-green algae are a bacteria.

*there's a little more to the story than that.


That's awesome! Sometimes professors (not all of them, just some of them) get mad when students tell them about a mistake that they made. What was the rest of the story?


a tale for another time my friend, a tale for another time.