'Sounds impossible,' but U.S. team put image into single photon

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by w1z4rd, Jan 22, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. w1z4rd

    w1z4rd Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,541
    Read more: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=...ml&cid=1112853218&sig2=JIVH1XZqPPHsse2NkA-y-g
     
    w1z4rd, Jan 22, 2007
    #1

  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. draqon

    draqon Banned Banned

    Messages:
    35,006
    draqon, Jan 22, 2007
    #2

  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. dixonmassey

    dixonmassey Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,151
    At last, at last, instanteneous downoad of porn movies will become possible. What a joy. hallelujah!
     
    dixonmassey, Jan 22, 2007
    #3

  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. w1z4rd

    w1z4rd Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,541
    I am in South Africa.... we have the most expensive broadband in the world. Long story about that, involves a corrupt government and a monopolistic telecoms company that got some American/Russian corporate training. Its bad. Our phone calls increase above inflation every year.

    At one stage I was paying around $400 for a 128kb connection and 1GB of bandwidth.

    If you want something like ADSL here, you have to pay around $100 US for something silly we invented called "ADSL Line rental", then you have to purchase the bandwidth separately for around $15 a Gigabyte. The account is so slow its painful.

    Sometimes it sucks to have been born in a 3rd world colonial country, but I always look at the bright side, I could have just as easily been Australian.

    Just kidding mates

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    w1z4rd, Jan 22, 2007
    #4
  8. kmguru

    kmguru Staff Member

    Messages:
    11,757
    Whether the country is rich or poor depends on their leaders. If you are not one of those and can not exploit the locals for wealth, there is no shame in getting the hell out there. The otherday, I saw a Nigerian working as a systems analyst in Dallas. He siad the same thing.

    Based on our dealings with the governments of Namibia, Botswanan Angola, Cameroon...the time moves differently in those countries. Namibia is ten times slow. so a contract takes 4 months to sign. In Burundi, it takes 6 months to get an email answer because someone has to go from the village on vacation to a far off land...

    In Sierra leone, the minister drinks in the american hotel before meeting with the business people so that he can truly represent the time handicap.

    So, if Africa is 10 to 20 times slow (but the babies are born on time) then no wonder your connection is slow....

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
     
    kmguru, Jan 25, 2007
    #5
  9. kmguru

    kmguru Staff Member

    Messages:
    11,757
    Here is the confusing part of the topic.


    To produce the UR image, Howell simply shone a beam of light through a stencil with the U and R etched out. Anyone who has made shadow puppets knows how this works, but Howell turned down the light so much that a single photon was all that passed through the stencil.

    Quantum mechanics dictates some strange things at that scale, so that bit of light could be thought of as both a particle and a wave. As a wave, it passed through all parts of the stencil at once, carrying the "shadow" of the UR with it. The pulse of light then entered a four-inch cell of cesium gas at a warm 100 degrees Celsius, where it was slowed and compressed, allowing many pulses to fit inside the small tube at the same time.

    So if we did not have many photons (many pulses) would that have formed the letters?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Now why is the retrived part has more information than the original? Something out of nothing? You be the judge...before and after...or did I miss something?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    kmguru, Jan 25, 2007
    #6
  10. draqon

    draqon Banned Banned

    Messages:
    35,006
    lolz...

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    draqon, Jan 25, 2007
    #7
  11. kmguru

    kmguru Staff Member

    Messages:
    11,757
    This must be the practice of pseudoscience...

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    kmguru, Jan 25, 2007
    #8
  12. MetaKron

    MetaKron Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,502
    This works because photons are now considered by mainstream science to be flexible.
     
    MetaKron, Jan 27, 2007
    #9
  13. weed_eater_guy

    weed_eater_guy It ain't broke, don't fix it! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,516
    who knows, maybe we could harness their speed and make light-speed-space-craft? dunno, but writing on a photon seems more unreasonable than that and apparently that worked...
     
    weed_eater_guy, Jan 27, 2007
    #10
  14. Athelwulf

    Athelwulf Rest in peace Kurt... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,060
    I hope this breakthrough means I'll get much faster Internet now.

    Can I have a proton with my name on it?

    If it's really as bad as you say it is, and if it's convenient for you — I honestly don't know your situation — I think you should move out. I can only vouch for the United States, but even if it's better than South Africa, I'm sure there are even better places to live.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    Athelwulf, Feb 2, 2007
    #11
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page