Scientists created a biological quantum circuit in grisly experiment with tardigrades – The Next Web

An international team of researchers are claiming to have performed the first ever experiment successfully quantum entangling a multi-celled organism.

The team, whose research was recently published in a pre-print paper, says its managed to place a tardigrade a tiny critter affectionately known as a water bear in a state of quantum entanglement between a pair of superconducting qubits.

In other words: the researchers managed to put a tardigrade in a state where it was directly connected to the qubits in such a way that anything that happens to the water bear or the qubits would simultaneously affect all three.

This is a fundamental property of quantum computing. But this kind of quantum function usually only occurs with particle-sized objects. Researchers have put single-celled organisms in a state of quantum entanglement before, but this would mark the first time scientists have done so with a complex biological organism.

There is, however, some debate as to the significance of the teams efforts. Per the researcherspaper:

We observe coupling between the animal in cryptobiosis and a superconducting quantum bit and prepare a highly entangled state between this combined system and another qubit. The tardigrade itself is shown to be entangled with the remaining subsystems. The animal is then observed to return to its active form after 420 hours at sub 10 mK temperatures and pressure of 6 106 mbar, setting a new record for the conditions that a complex form of life can survive.

Theres a lot to unpack there, but first and foremost: other physicists are being critical of this work early due to what appears to be a loose definition of entanglement.

As spotted by Live Sciences Brandon Specktor, the buzz on social media appears to be entirely skeptical:

But, as Specktor also points out, this is all likely to get sorted in peer-review. For now, lets talk about the experiment itself.

Tardigrades are among the most resilient creatures we know of. They can enter a state of suspended animation where they have no observable biological functions in order to survive in extremely hostile environments.

Its for this reason the scientists chose to attempt integrating them with quantum bits in a circuit. The ideas pretty basic. You freeze the tardigrades to the point that theyre next to absolute zero, and then you can put them in a state of entanglement just like any other super-cold particle.

However, because the tardigrades are living beings, the storys a bit more visceral than your standard we entangled several photons variety of experiment.

According to teams paper, these particular tardigrades were collected in February 2018 from a roof gutter in Niva, Denmark.

So, to sum up, a group of humans in white coats kidnapped a bunch of cute little water bears, who were already living in a literal gutter, and then exposed them to the coldest temperatures a tardigrades ever experienced before forcing them into a three-way entanglement with superconducting qubits.

The team was able to revive one of the tardigrades that were successfully involved in what theyre calling entanglement. But, as for the others, the researchers wrote we wish to point out that it is very important for the revival of the animal to change the external temperature and pressure gently.

Rest in power little science bears, well never forget you.

Further reading: Physicists might have created quantum entanglement in bacteria

See the original post:

Scientists created a biological quantum circuit in grisly experiment with tardigrades - The Next Web