"Lying jusf beneath everyday reality is c: breathtaking world, where much of whcn' we perceive about The universe is wrong." "Physicist and besf-selling author Bricm Greene fakes you on c: journey fhcn' bends The rules of human experience." "BRIAN GREENE:" "Why don"r we ever see events unfold in reverse order?" "According To The laws of physics, this can happen." "H's c: world fhcn' comes To light as we probe The most extreme realms of The cosmos, from black holes To The Big Bang." "To The very hecm' of maffer itself." "I'm going To have what he's having." "Here, our universe may be one of numerous parallel recllilies." "The Three-dimensional world may be jusf cm illusion, cmci There's no ciisfinciion befween pasf, presem' and fufure." "GREENE:" "Bu'r how could This be?" "How could we be so wrong about something so familiar?" "Does it bother us?" "Absolutely." "There's no principle built inio The laws of nj'rure." "Th(JTS(JyTh(JTTl'1€OI'€TiCC1l physicists have To be happy." "H's c: game-changing perspective fhcn' opens up Ci new world of possibilities." "Coming up..." "The realm of Tiny aloms ancl particles:" "The auanlum realm." "The laws here seem impossible." "There's 1 sense in which things don'?" "Like To be Tied down 'ro jus'r one locofion." "Yef They're vifal To everything in The universe." "There's no disagreement between quantum mechanics and any experiment 'rh:'r's ever been done." "Whcn' do They reveal ClbOUT The ncn'ure of reality?" "Take c: "Qucmfum Leap" on "The Fabric of The Cosmos,"" "righf now on NOVA." "Major funding for NOVA is provided by the following:" "And..." "And by The Corporofion for Public Broodcosfing and by contributions To your PBS s'rJ'rion from:" "Major funding for "The Fabric of The Cosmos"" "is provided by the Noiionol Science Foundoiion." "And..." "Supporting original research and public unaersianaing of science, Technology, engineering and mathematics." "Additional funding is provided by..." "And the George D. Smith Fund." "GREENE:" "For Thousands of years, we've been Trying To unlock the mysteries of how the universe works." "And we've done prefiy well, coming up with 1 set of laws that describes The clear and certain motion of galaxies and s'rars and planets." "Bu'r now we know, GT 1 fundamental level, things are 1 lo'r more fuzzy, because we've discovered 1 revolutionary new se'r of laws that have completely Transformed our picture of the universe." "From outer space, To The heart of New York City, to the microscopic realm, our view of The world has shifted, thanks to These strange and mysterious laws that are redefining our understanding of reality." "They are the laws of quantum mechanics." "Quantum mechanics rules over every atom and Tiny particle in every piece of matter." "In stars and planets, in rocks and buildings, and in you and me." "We don'?" "Notice the strangeness of quantum mechanics in everyday life, bu'r I'r's always There, if you know where To look." "You jus'r have To change your perspective and get down to the tiniest of scales, lo the level of aloms and the particles inside Them." "Down at The quantum level, The laws that govern This Tiny realm appear complefely ciifferenf from fhe familiar laws that govern big, everyday objects." "And once you catch 1 glimpse of them, you never look at the world in quite the same way." "L'r's almost impossible To picture how weird Things can gel down at the smallest of scales." "But what if you could visit 1 place like this, where the quantum laws were obvious, where people and objecls behave like liny atoms and parlicles?" "You'd be in for quite 1 show." "Here, objects do Things that seem crazy." "I mean, in the quantum world, 'rhere's 1 sense in which things don'?" "Like To be Tied down 'ro jus'r one locofion, or to follow jus'r one path." "L'r's almost as if Things were in more than one place GT 1 Time." "And what I do here can have an immediate effect somewhere else, even if 'rhere's no one There." "And here's one of The strangest things of all:" "İf people behaved like the particles inside The atom, then most of the time, you wouldn"r know exactly where they were." "Instead, they could be almost anywhere, until you look for Them." "H€Y..." "I'm going To have what he's having." "So why do we believe These bizarre laws?" "Well, for over 75 years, we've been using Them to make predictions for how atoms and particles should behave." "And in experiment Jf'rer experiment." "The quanium laws have always been right." "L'r's the best theory we have." "There are literally billions of pieces of confirming evidence for quantum mechanics." "L'r has passed so many 'res'rs of so many bizarre predictions." "There's no disagreement between quantum mechanics and any experiment 'rh:'r's ever been done." "The quanium laws become most obvious when you get down to tiny scales, like atoms, but consider this:" "I'm made of atoms." "So are you." "So is everything else we see in the world around us." "So I'r must be The case that these weird quantum laws are not just telling us about small things." "They're Telling us C1bOUTI'6C1liTy." "So how did we discover them, these strange laws that seem To contradict much of what we Thought we knew C1bOUTTl'1€ universe?" "Not long ago, we Though?" "We had it pretty much figured out." "The rules that govern how planets orbit The Sun." "How 1 ball arcs through the sky." "How ripples move across the surface of 1 pond." "These laws were all spelled oul in 1 series of equalions called classical mechanics, and they allowed us To predict the behavior of things with certainty." "ITC1II seemed To be making perfect sense." "UHTilC1bOUTC1 hundred years ago, when scien'ris'rs were struggling To explain some unusual properties of light." "In particular, The kind of light that glowed from gases when they were heated in 1 glass Tube." "When scieniisis observed This light Through 1 prism, they saw something 'rhey'd never expected." "PETER GALISON:" "If you heated up some gas and looked at I'r Through 1 prism, it formed lines." "Not the continuous spectrum 'rho'r you see projected by 1 piece of cu'r glass on your Table, but very distinct lines." "DAVID KAISER:" "L'r wouldn't give out 1 smear, kind of complete rainbow of light." "Ii would give out sori of pencil beams of light at very specific colors." "GALISON:" "And I'r was something of 1 mystery, how to understand what was going on." "GREENE:" "An explanation for The mysterious lines of color would come from 1 band of radical scientists." "who, C1TTl'1€ beginning of the 2O'rh century, were grappling with The fundamental nature of The physical world." "And some of the most startling insights came from the mind of Niels Bohr," "1 physicist who loved To discuss new ideas over ping-pong." "Bohr wos convinced 'rho'r The solution 'ro The mystery lay at the heart of matter, in the structure of the atom." "He Thought that atoms resemble tiny solar systems, with even tinier particles called electrons orbiting around 1 nucleus, much the way the planets orbit around The Sun." "Bu'r unlike The solor system, Bohr proposed 'rho'r electrons could not move in jus'r any orbit." "Instead, only certain orbits were allowed." "GALISON:" "And he had 1 really surprising and completely counterphysical idea, which was that There were definite sioies, fixed orbits that These electrons could hove, and only those orbits." "GREENE:" "Bohr said that when an atom was heated, its electrons would become agitated and leap from one fixed orbit To another." "Each downward leap would emit energy in The form of light in very specific wavelengths, ond 'rho'r's why otoms produce very specific colors." "This is where we get the phrase "quantum leap."" "JIM GATES:" "If I'r weren"r for the quantum leap, you would hove this smeor of color coming out from on otom as I'r go'r excited or de-excited." "BUTThC1T'S not what we see in the laboratory." "You see very sharp reds and very sharp greens." "L'r's the quantum leap." "Th(JT'S The origin and The author of that sharp color." "GREENE:" "What made The quantum leap so surprising was that the electron goes directly from here To There, seemingly without moving through the space in between." "L'r was C1SifMC1I'S suddenly popped from its own orbit out To Jupiter." "Bohr argued 'rha'r The auan'rum leap arises from a fundamental, and fundamentally weird, property of electrons in atoms," "Th(JT1'h€il' energy comes in discrete chunks 'rhd'r CGHHOT be subdivided, specific minimum quantities CC1II€CI "qUC1fiTC1."" "And Th(JT'S why There are only discrete, specific orbits." "ThC1T€I€CTI'OfiS can occupy." "KAISER:" "An electron had To be here or There, and simply nowhere in between." "And Th(JT'S like nothing we experience in everyday life." "Think of your daily life." "When you eo'r food, you think your food is quonfized?" "Do you think that you have To Take 1 certain amount of minimum food?" "Food is not quantized." "But the energy of electrons in an atom are quantized." "Thai is very mysterious, why that is." "GREENE:" "As mysterious as I'r might be for Tiny particles in an atom To act this way, the evidence quickly mounted, showing that Bohr was right." "In more and more experiments, eleclrons followed o clifferenl sel of rules than planets or ping-pong balls." "Bohr's discovery was 1 game-changer." "And with This new picture of The atom, Bohr and his colleagues found themselves on 1 collision course with the accepted laws of physics." "The quantum leap WC1SjUST The beginning." "Soon, Bohr's radical views would bring him heod-'ro-heod with one of the greatest physicists in history." "Albert Einstein was no'r afraid of new ideas." "Bu'r during The 19205, the world of quantum mechanics begdn To veer in d direction Einstein did noi wdni to go, d direction lhdi sharply diverged from the Qbsoluie, definitive predictions lhal were The hallmark of classical physics." "TEGMARK:" "If you asked Einstein or other physicists at The time what ii was that distinguished physics from all kind of flaky speculation, they would have said," ""l'r's ThC1TW€ can predict Things with cer'rJin'ry."" "And quantum mechanics seemed To pull the rug out from under 'rhJ'r." "GREENE:" "One 'res'r in particular, which would come To be known C1STl'1€ double-sli'r experiment exposed quantum mysteries like no other." "If you were looking for 1 description of reality based on certainty, your expectations would be shafiered." "We can ge'r 1 pre'r'ry good feel for the double-slit experiment and how dramatically ll allers our piclure of reallly, by carrying ou'r 1 similar experiment not on the scale of tiny particles but on the scale of more ordinary objects," "like those you'd find here in 1 bowling alley." "But first I need To make 1 couple of adjustments to the lane." "You'd expect that if I roll 1 few of These balls down the lane," "They'll either be stopped by The barrier or pass Through one or The other sli'r and hit the screen GT The back." "And in fJc'r, Th(J1"SjUSTWhC11' happens." "Those balls 'rha'r make I'r Through always hit the screen directly behind either The lef'r sli'r or The right sli'r." "The double sli'r experiment was much like this, except instead of bowling balls, you use eleclrons, which are billions of limes smaller." "You can picture Them like this." "Le'r's see what happens if I Throw 1 bunch of These balls." "When electrons are hurled at the two slits, something very different happens on the other side." "Instead of hitting jus'r two areas, the electrons land allover the detector screen, creating 1 pattern of stripes, including some right between the two slits, the very place you'd think would be blocked." "So WhC11"S going on?" "Well, To physicists, even in The 1920s, this pattern could mean only one Thing:" "WGVGS." "Waves do all kinds of interesting Things," "Things that bowling balls would never do." "They can split." "They can combine." "If I sent 1 wave of water Through The double sli'rs, it would split in two, and then the two sets of waves would intersect." "Their peaks and valleys would combine, getting bigger in some places, smaller in others, and sometimes They'd cancel each other out." "With The height of The water corresponding to brightness on The screen, the peaks and valleys would create 1 series of stripes in WhC11"S known as an interference pattern." "So how could electrons, which are particles, form that pattern?" "How could d single eleclron end up in pldces d wove would go?" "Particles are particles." "WGVGS GT9 WGVGS." "How can 1 particle be 1 wave?" "Unless you give up The idea Th(J1'iT'S 1 particle." "And Think, "Aha!"" ""This Thing 'rha'r I Thought was a particle was actually a wave."" "A wove in an ocean, 'rh:'r's not 1 particle." "The ocean is made ou'r of particles, but the waves in the ocean are not particles." "And rocks are not waves, rocks are rocks." "So 1 rock is an example of 1 particle, an ocean wave is an example of an ocean wove, and now somebody's Telling you 1 rock is like an ocean wave." "What?" "Back in The 19205, when 1 version of This experiment was first clone, scientists struggled to understdnd this wdvy behdvior." "Some wondered if o single electron, while in motion, might spread out in'ro 1 wave." "And the physicist Erwin Schrédinger came up with an equation that seemed To describe I'r." "STEVEN WEINBERG:" "Schrédinger Thought Th(JT1'hiS wave wds d description of dn extended electron, that somehow an electron got smeared out and I'r was no longer 1 point bu'r was like 1 mush." "There was 1 lo'r of argument." "C1bOUT€XC1CTly what this represented." "GREENE:" "Finally, 1 physicist named Max Born came up with 1 new and revolutionary idea for WhC1TTh€ wave equation described." "Born said that The wave is not 1 smeared-out electron or anything else previously encountered in science." "Instedd, he declared I'r's something 'rha'r's really peculiar:" "A probability wave." "[That is, Born argued that the size of the wave (JTC1I'1ylOC(]TiOH predicts The likelihood of The electron being found There." "WEINBERG:" "Where The wave is big, 'rh:'r's not where most of The electron is, 'rh:'r's where The electron is most likely To be." "And 'rh:'r's jus'r very strange, right?" "So The electron on I'rs own seems To be 1 jumble of possibiliiies." "PETER FISHER:" "You're not allowed To ask," ""Where is The electron right now?"" "You ore allowed lo osk, "lf I look for The eleclron" ""in This li'r'rle particular part of space, what is The likelihood I will find I'r There?"" "I mean, that bugs anyone anytime." "As weird as I'r sounds, this new way of describing how particles like elecirons move is actually right." "When I Throw 1 single electron," "I can never predict where I'r will land, but if I use Schrédingefs equation to find the elec'rron's probability wove," "I can predict with great certainty that if I Throw enough electrons," "Then, say, 33.1% would end up "here,"" "7.9% would end up "There," and so on." "These kinds of predictions have been confirmed again and again by experiments." "And so, The equations of quantum mechanics turn out To be amazingly accurate and precise, so long as you can accept Th(J1'iT'S all about probability." "If you Think that probability means you're reduced To guessing, the casinos of Las Vegas are ready To prove you wrong." "Try your hand GT any one of these games of chance, and you can see the power of probability." "Le'r's say I place 1 $20 bet on number 29 here at The roulefie Table." "The house doesn"r know whether I'll win on This spin or The next or The next." "One." "Bul il cloes know The probability that I'll win." "In this game, I'r's one in 38." "21." "(bell rings)" "WOMAN: 29." "So even though I may win now and Then, in The long run, the house always Takes in more than it loses." "The point is, The house doesn"r hove 'ro know the outcome of any single card game, roll of The dice, or spin of the roulette wheel." "Casinos can s'rill be confident that over The course of Thousands of spins, deals, and rolls, they will win, and they can predict with exquisiie accuracy exactly how often." "According To quantum mechanics, the world itself is 1 game of chance much like this." "All the matter in the universe is made of atoms and subatomic particles that are ruled by probability, not certainty." "EDWARD FARHI:" "AT base, nature is described by an inherently probabilistic Theory." "And that is highly counterintuitive, and something which many people would find difficulty accepting." "GREENE:" "One person who found if difficulf was Einsfein." "Einsiein could noi believe Thai The fundamental nature of redli'ry, d'r the deepest level, wds determined by chdnce." "And This is what Einstein could not accept." "Einstein said, "God does not Throw dice."" "He didn't like the idea that we couldn't with certainty say," ""This happens or that happens."" "GREENE:" "Bu'r 1 lo'r of other physicisfs weren"r so put off by probability, because The equations of quantum mechanics gave Them The power to predict The behavior of groups of atoms and tiny particles with astounding precision." "Before long, that power would lead." "To some very big inventions." "Lasers, Transistors, the integrated circuit the entire field of electronics." "MAX TEGMARK:" "If quantum mechanics suddenly went on strike, every single machine that we have in The US, almost would stop functioning." "GREENE:" "The equations of quantum mechanics would help engineers design microscopic swiiches that direct The flow of tiny electrons ond control virtually every one of 'rodoy's computers, digital cameras, and telephones." "ADAMS:" "All the devices 'rhd'r we live on, diodes, 'rrdnsis'rors, jus'r... that form the basis of information Technology, the basis of daily life in all sorls of ways, they work." "And why do they work?" "They work because of quantum mechanics." "WEINBERG:" "I'm tempted To SC1yThC1T without quantum mechanics, we'd be back in The dark ages, but I guess more accurately, without quantum mechanics we'd be back in the 19'rh century." "Steam engines, Telegraph signals." "TEGMARK:" "Quantum mechanics is the most successful theory that we physicists have ever discovered." "And yet, we're s'rill arguing about what it means," "WhC1TiTT€llS us about the nature of reality." "GREENE:" "In spite of all of its Triumphs, quantum mechanics remains deeply mysterious." "L'r makes all This stuff run, bu'r we s'rill haven'?" "Answered basic quesiions raised by Alberi Einstein." "C1llTl'1€ way back in The 1920s and '30s, quesiions involving probability and measurement the act of observation." "For Niels Bohr, measurement changes everything." "He believed 'rhd'r before you measured or observed d pdrricle, its characteristics were uncertain." "For example, an electron in the double-sli'r experiment." "Before the detector ot the book pinpoints its locotion, it could be almost anywhere, with 1 whole range of possibilities." "Until The moment you observe I'r, and only at that point will the locJ'rion's uncertainty disappear." "According to Bohr's approach To quantum mechanics, when you measure 1 particle, the (JCT of measurement forces The particle To relinquish all of the possible places il could have been onci select one definite locotion where you find it." "The act of measurement is what forces The particle to make that choice." "Niels Bohr accepted that the nature of reality was inherently fuzzy." "Bu'r not Einstein." "He believed in certainty, not jus'r when something is measured or looked GT, bUTC1ll The Time." "As Einstein said, "l like To Think The moon is There"" "even when I'm not looking at I'r."" "ThC1T'S what Einstein was so upset about." "Do we really Think The reallly of the universe resis on whether or not we happen To open our eyes?" "ThC1T'S jus'r bizarre." "GREENE:" "Einsiein was convinced something was missing from quonium Theory, something that would describe all the aetailea features of particles, like their locations, even when you were not looking at Them." "But at the time, few physicists shared his concern." "KAISER:" "And Einstein just Thought I'r was giving up on the job of the physicist." "L'r wJsn"r bad physics per se, iTjUSTWC1STOTC1llyiHCOI'T1lDl€T€." "ThC1T'S Einstein's refrain." "Quantum mechanics is not incorrect, I'r's as far as... in so far as it goes, bu'r I'r's incomplete." "L'r doesn"r capture all of The Things that can be said or predicted with certainty." "GREENE:" "Despite Eins'rein's argumenis, Niels Bohr remained unmoved." "When Einstein repeated that "God does no'r play dice,"" "Bohr responded, "Stop telling God what To do."" "Bu'r in 1935, Einstein Thought he'd finally found." "The Achilles' Heel of quantum mechanics." "(screaming)" "Something so strange, so counler lo all logical views of The universe, he Thought I'r held The key." "To proving The Theory was incomplete." "L'r's called "en'rJnglemen'r."" "LEWIN:" "The most bizarre, the most absurd, The most crazy, the most ridiculous prediction that quantum mechanics makes is entanglement." "GREENE:" "Entanglement is 1 theoretical prediction that comes from The equations of quantum mechanics." "Two particles can become entangled if they're close Together and their properties become linked." "Remarkably, quantum mechanics says that even if you separated those particles, sending Them in opposite directions, they could remain entangled, inextricably connected." "To understand how profoundly weird This is, consider 1 property of electrons called "spin."" "(screaming)" "Unlike 1 spinning Top, an elec'rron's spin, as with other quantum qualifies, is generally completely fuzzy and uncertain until the momen'r you measure I'r." "And when you do, you'll find" "I'r's either spinning clockwise or counterclockwise." "L'r's kind of like This wheel." "When it stops Turning, ll will randomly land on eilher recl or blue." "Now imagine 1 second wheel." "If lnese lwo wheels behaved like lwo enlanglecl electrons," "Then every time one landed red, the other is guaranteed to land on blue." "And vice-verse." "Now, since the wheels are not connected, 'rh:'r's suspicious enough." "But the quantum mechanics embraced by Niels Bohr and his colleagues went even further, predicting that if one of the pair were far away, even on the moon, with no wires or Transmitters connecting Them, still, if you look o'r one ond find red," "the other is sure To be blue." "In other words, if you measured 1 particle here, not only would you affect I'r, but your measurement would also affect its entangled partner, no matter how distant." "For Einstein, that kind of weird long-range connection be'rween spinning wheels or particles was so ludicrous, he called I'r spooky:" ""spooky action at 1 CliSTC1fiC€."" "WhC1T'S surprising is Thai when you make 1 measurement of one particle, you affect the state of the other particle." "You change I'rs STGTG." "There's no forces or pulleys or, you know, Telephone wires." "There's nothing connecting Those Things, right." "How could my choice To (JCT here have anything to do with what happens over There?" "So 'rhere's no way they can communicate with each other." "So I'r is completely bizarre." "GREENE:" "Einstein just could not accept entanglement worked this way, convincing himself that only The math was weird, no'r reality." "He agreea that entangled particles could exis'r, bu'r he Thought that There was 1 simpler explanation for why they were linked that did not involve" "1 mysterious long-distance connection." "Instead, he insisted that entangled particles were more like 1 pair of gloves." "Imogine someone seporoies The Two gloves, putting each in 1 case." "Then that person delivers one of Those cases to me, and sends the other case to Antarctica." "Thanks." "Before I look inside my cose, I know 'rho'r it hos either 1 left-hand or 1 right-hand glove." "And when I open my case, if I find 1 left-hand glove," "Then at that ins'rJn'r, I know The case in Antarctica mus?" "Contain 1 right-hand glove, even though no one hos looked inside." "There's nothing mysterious about this." "Obviously, by looking inside The case," "I've not affected ei'rher glove." "This case has always had 1 left-hand glove, and the one in Antarctica has always had 1 right-hand glove." "That was se'r from The moment the gloves were separated and packed away." "Now, Einstein Thought that exactly the same idea applies lo enlanglea parlicles." "Whatever configuration the electrons are in must have been fully determined from The moment that they flew apart." "So who was right?" "Bohr, who championed the equations ThC1TSC1id that particles were like spinning wheels that could immediately link their random resulis even across great distances?" "Or Einsiein, who believed There wos no spooky connection, but ins'redd, everything wds decided well before you looked?" "Well, the big challenge in figuring oul who was righl," "Bohr or Einstein, is that Einstein is saying 1 lDC1i'TiCl€, SC1y, has 1 definite spin before you measure I'r." ""How do you check 'rhJ'r2" you say To Einstein." "He says, "Well, measure it"" "and you'll find The definite spin."" "Bohr would say, "But I'r's the act of measurement"" "that brought that spin To 1 definite STGTG."" "No one knew how to resolve the problem, so 'rhe whole question come 'ro be considered philosophy, not science." "In 1955, Einsiein died, s'rill convinced that quantum mechanics offered, at best, an incomplete picture of reality." "In 1967, GT Columbia University," "Einstein's mission To challenge quantum mechanics was Taken up by an unlikely recruit." "John Clauser was on The verge of earning 1 PhD in astrophysics." "The only Thing standing in his way was his grade in quantum mechanics." "JOHN CLAUSER:" "When I was still 1 graduate s'ruden'r, Try as I might" "I could no'r understand quantum mechanics." "GREENE:" "Clauser was wondering if Einstein might be right when he made 1 life-altering discovery." "L'r was an obscure paper by 1 li'r'rle-known Irish physicist named John Bell." "Amazingly, Bell seemed lo have found 1 way to break The deadlock be'rween Einstein and Bohr, and show, once and for all, who was right about the universe." "CLAUSER:" "I was convinced that the quantum mechanical view was probably wrong." "GREENE:" "Reading the paper," "Clduser sdw 'rhd'r Bell hdd discovered how To 'rell if entangled particles were really communicating through spooky action, like matching spinning wheels, or if There was nothing spooky C1TC1II and the particles were already se'r in their ways," "like 1 pair of gloves." "WhC1T'S more, with some clever mathematics," "Bell showed that if spooky action were not C11'WOI'l, then quantum mechanics wJsn"r merely incomplete, as Einstein thought:" "İt was wrong." "I came to The conclusion 'rhJ'r, "My God, this is one of the mos'r profound results I've ever seen."" "GREENE:" "Bell was 1 theorist." "But his pdper showed 'rhd'r the question could be decided if you could build 1 machine that created and compared many pairs of entangled particles." "Bell lurnecl The queslion inlo an experimental queslion." "L'r wJsn"r jus'r going To be about philosophy or trading pieces of paper." "And The experiment that he envisioned could be done." "You could really se'r up an actual experiment to force The issue." "GREENE:" "Clauser se'r about constructing 1 machine that would finally settle the debate." "Now, I WC1SjUST This punk graduate student at the time." "This really seemed like, "Wow."" "There's always the slim chance that you will find 1 resull that will shake The world." "GREENE:" "CIC1US€I"S machine could measure thousands of pairs of entangled particles and compare their spins in many different directions." "As the results started coming in," "Clauser was surprised, and not happy." "[I kept asking myself, "Wh(]ThC1V€ldOfi€ wrong?" "What mistakes have I made in This?"" "GREENE:" "Clauser repeated his experiments, and soon," "French physicist Alain Aspect started doing similar 'res'rs." "Aspect go'r The same results." "GREENE:" "CIC1US€I"S and Aspec'r's results are truly shocking." "Even Though they defy our intuition, they prove that The math of quantum mechanics is right." "Entanglement is real." "Quantum particles can be linked across space." "Measuring one thing can, in fJc'r, instantly affect its distant partner, as if The space between Them didn"r even exis'r." "The one Thing that Einstein Thought was impossible, spooky action GT 1 distance, actually happens." "I wds dgdin very saddened that I had no'r overthrown quantum mechanics, because I still had and, to this day, s'rill have great difficulty in understanding I'r." "That is The mos?" "Bizarre Thing of quantum mechanics." "L'r is impossible To even comprehend." "Don"r even ask me why." "DOH'TC1Sl me, which you're going 'ro, how I'r works, because I'r's an illegal queslion." "All we can say is that is apparently the way the world ticks." "GREENE:" "So, if we accept that The world really does Tick in This bizarre way, could we ever harness the long-distance spooky action of entanglement." "To do something useful?" "Well, one dream has been." "To somehow transport people and things from one place To another without crossing The space in between." "In other words: 'relepor'rJ'rion." ""Beam me aboard!"" ""Energize."" ""Energizing!"" "GREENE:" "Star Trek has always made "beaming," or teleporfing, look pretty convenient." "Ii seems like pure science fiction, but could entanglement make it possible?" "Remarkably, 'res'rs are already underway here on The Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa." "ANTON ZEILINGER:" "We do the experiments here on the Canary Islands because you hove two observotories." "And Jf'rer all, I'r's 1 nice environment." "GREENE:" "Anton Zeilinger is 1 long way from Teleporfing himself or any other human, but he is trying to use quJn'rum entanglement." "To ielepori Tiny individual particles, in this case, photons, particles of light." "He starts by generating 1 pair of entangled photons in 1 lab on The island of L0 Palma." "One entangled photon stays on L0 Palma, while the other is sent by laser to the island of Tenerife, 89 miles away." "Now, Zeilinger brings in o third photon, the one he wants to 'relepor'r, and has I'r interact with The entangled photon on L0 Palma." "The Team studies the interaction, comparing the quantum STGTGS of the two particles." "And here's The amazing part:" "Because of spooky action," "Zeilinger is C1bl€TO use that comparison." "To Transform The entangled photon on The distant island into on iclenficol copy of 'rho'r Third photon." "L'r's as if The Third photon has Teleporfed across the sea, without traversing The space between the islands." "We sort of ex'rroc'r The informofion carried by the original and make 1 new original There." "GREENE:" "Using This Technique," "Zeilinger has successfully Teleporfed dozens of particles." "Bu'r could This go even further?" "Since we're made of particles, could This process moke humon 'relepor'ro'rion possible one doy?" "ATTENDANT:" "Welcome to New York City." "Le'r's say I want to get To Paris for 1 quick lunch." "Well, in Theory, entanglement might someday make that possible." "Here's WhC1Tl'Cl need: 1 chamber of particles here in New York that's entangled with another chamber of particles in Paris." "Right this way, Mr. Greene." "GREENE:" "I would step in'ro 1 pod that acts sor'r of like 1 scanner or 1 fax machine." "While 'rhe device scans 'rhe huge number of particles in my body... more particles than There are stars in the observable universe... it's jointly scanning the particles in the other chamber, and I'r creates 1 liST1'hC1T compares The quantum STGTG" "of the two sets of particles." "And here's where entanglement comes in:" "Because of spooky action a'r a distance, lhal lisl also reveals how the original s'ra're of my parlicles is related To The STGTG of The particles in Paris." "Next, the operator sends that list to Paris." "There, They use The data to reconstruct the exact quantum state of every single one of my particles, and 1 new me moterializes." "L'r's not that The particles Traveled from New York To Paris." "L'r's that entanglement allows my quantum slale to be extracted in New York and reconstituted in Paris, down To The l(JSTIOC1I'TiCl€." "(French music plays)" "Bonjour, Mr. Greene." "Hi There." "So here I om in Paris, an exact replica of myself." "And I'd be'r'rer be, because measuring the quantum STGTG of all my particles in New York has aeslroyea the original me." "FARHI:" "I'r is obsolufely required in the quontum 'relepor'ro'rion protocol that The Thing 1'hC1TiS teleporfed is destroyed in the process." "And you know, that does make you 1 li'r'rle anxious." "I guess you would just end up being 1 lump of neutrons, protons, ond electrons." "You wouldn"r look 'roo good." "Now, we are 1 long way from human T€I€lOOI'TC1TiOH Today, bui The possibility raises 1 question:" "İs the Brian Greene who arrives in Paris really me?" "Well, There should be no difference between the old me in New York and the new me here in Paris." "And The reason is 'rhJ'r, according to quantum mechanics," "I'r's not the physical particles that make me "me,"" "I'r's The information those particles contain." "And that information has been Teleporfed exactly for all The lrillions of lrillions of particles that make up my body." "ZEILINGER:" "Ii is o very deep philosophical question, whether what arrives at The receiving s'rJ'rion is The original or not." "My position is 'rhJ'r by original, we mean something which has all The properlies of The original." "ATTENDANT:" "Welcome to New York City." "ZEILINGER:" "And if this is the case, Then I'r is The original." "I wouldn't step into that machine." "Uaughﬂ." "Whether or not human T€I€lOOI'T(JTiOH ever becomes 1 reality," "The fuzzy uncertainty of quantum mechanics has all sorts of other potential applications." "Here at MIT, Seth Lloyd is one of many researchers trying to harness quantum mechanics in powerful new ways." "LLOYD:" "Quantum mechanics is weird." "ThC1T'S just The way I'r is." "So you know, life is dealing us weird lemons, can we make some weird lemonade from This?" "GREENE:" "Lloyd's weird lemonode comes in the form of o quontum computer." "LLOYD:" "These are The guts of 1 quantum computer." "GREENE:" "This gold ond bross con'rrop'rion might not look onyihing like your familiar lopiop, but a'r its heart, it speaks the same language: binary code," "1 compuler language spelled oul in zeros and ones, callecl bils." "LLOYD:" "So The smallest chunk of information is 1 bi'r." "And whai 1 compuier does is simply busis up The information into the smallest chunks, and Then flips Them really, really, really rapidly." "GREENE:" "This quantum computer speaks in bits, bu'r unlike 1 conventional bi'r, which at any moment can be either zero or one," "1 quantum bit is much more flexible." "You know, something here can be 1 bi'r." "Here is zero, There is one." "ThC1T'S 1 bit of information." "So if you can have something 'rh:'r's here and There." "GT The same Time, Then you have 1 quantum bit, or qubif." "GREENE:" "Just as an electron can be 1 fuzzy mixture of spinning clockwise ond counterclockwise, 1 quantum bit can be 1 fuzzy mixture of being 1 zero 1n1 1 one, 1n1 so 1 1ubi'r c1n mul'ri'r1sk." "LLOYD:" "Then it meons you con do computations in ways that our classical brains could not hdve dreamed of." "GREENE:" "In Theory, quantum bits could be made from anything that acts in 1 quantum way, like an electron or an atom." "The qubi'rs GT 'rhe heart of this computer are tiny super-conducting circuits built with nonotechnology that can run in two directions GT once." "Since quantum bits are so good at multi-tasking, if we can figure out how to get qubifs to work together To solve problems, our computing power could explode exponentially." "To gel o feel for why o quonlum compuler would be so powerful, imagine being Ti'C1lDIO€d in the middle of d hedge mdze." "What you'd wont is To find 1 way out as fast as possible." "The problem is, There are so many options." "And ljus'r have To Try Them out one at 1 time." "That means I'm going To hit lo'rs of dead ends, go clown lols of blind alleys, and make lo'rs of wrong Turns before I finally get lucky and find The exi'r." "And Th(JT'S pretty much how Today's computers solve problems." "Though They do I'r very quickly, they only carry out one Task GT 1 time, jusi like I can only invesiigaie one path oi 1 time in the maze." "Bul if I could lry all of the possibililies cl once, it would be 1 different story." "And Th(JT'S kind of how quonium computing works." "Since particles can, in 1 sense, be in many places GT once, the computer could investigate 1 huge number of paths or solutions at The same time, and find the correct one in 1 snap." "Now, 1 maze like This only has 1 limited number of routes To explore, so o convenfionol computer could find the way out pretty quickly." "But imagine 1 problem with millions or billions of variables, like predicting The weather far in advance." "We might be able To forecast natural disasters like earthquakes or Tornadoes." "Solving Thai kind of problem right now would be impossible, because I'r would Take 1 ridiculously huge computer, but 1 quantum computer could get The job done with just 1 few hundred atoms." "And so The brain of that computer... it would be smaller than 1 grain of sand." "There's no doubt we're getting be'r'rer and better at harnessing The power of the quantum world, and who knows where that could Take us?" "Bu'r we can'?" "Forget that at The heart of This Theory, which has given us so much, There is s'rill 1 gaping hole." "All the weirdness down at The quantum level... at The scale of atoms and lDC1I'TiCl€S... where does The weirdness go?" "Why can Things in The quanium world hover in 1 STGTG of uncertainty, seemingly being portly here and portly There, wiih so many possibilities, while you and I..." "who, C1fl'€I' C1II, C1I'€ made of atoms and lDC1I'TiCl€S... seem To always be stuck in 1 single definite s'rJ're?" "We are always either here or There." "Niels Bohr offered no real explanation for why all the weird fuzziness of The quantum world seems To vanish as Things increase in size." "As powerful and accurate as quantum mechanics has proven to be, scien'ris'rs are s'rill struggling to figure this out." "Some believe that There is some detail missing in the equations of quantum mechanics." "Ancl so, even though lhere are multiple possibilities in The Tiny world, The missing details would C1CljUSTTl'1€ numbers on our way up from atoms To objects in the big world so that I'r would become clear" "lhal all but one of Those possibililies disappear, resulting in 1 single, certain outcome." "Other physicisls believe Thai all The possibililies that exist in The quonium world, they never do go away." "Instead, each and every possible outcome actually happens, only most of Them happen in other universes parallel lo our own." "L'r's 1 mind-blowing idea, but reoli'ry could go beyond the one universe we oll see and be constantly branching off, creating new, alternative worlds, where every possibility gels played oui." "This is The frontier of quantum mechanics, and no one knows where I'r will lead." "The very fact 'rhJ'r our reality is much grander than we Thought much more strange and mysterious than we Thought, is to me also very beautiful and awe-inspiring." "The beauly of science is that il allows you lo learn things which go beyond your wildest dreams." "And quantum mechanics is The epitome of 'rhJ'r." "After you learn quantum mechanics, you're never really the same again." "GREENE:" "As strange as quantum mechanics may be," "WhC11"S now clear is that there's no boundary between the worlds of the tiny and the big." "Instead, These laws apply everywhere, and it'SjUSTTh(JTTl'1€il' weird features are most apparent when things are small." "And so The discovery of quantum mechanics has revealed a reallly, our reallly, 'rh:'r's both shocking and thrilling, bringing us that much closer to fully understanding the fabric of The cosmos." "Major funding for NOVA is provided by:" "And..." "And by The Corporofion for Public Broodcosfing and by contributions To your PBS s'rJ'rion from:" "Major funding for "The Fabric of The Cosmos"" "is provided by the Noiionol Science Foundoiion." "And..." "Supporting original research and public unaersianaing of science, Technology, engineering and mathematics." "Additional funding is provided by..." "And the George D. Smith Fund." "Captioned by Media Access Group GT WGBH Jccess.wgbh.org"