Anything moving has an associated wavelength. If that wavelength is long enough, you can do the young’s double slip experiment on it.
It was a few years ago, so the details are hazy. A scientific team accelerated a particularly small and sturdy bacteria fast enough that their speed produced a viable wavelength. They then sent the stream through 2 slits. They then captured the bacteria in aerogel (I think) to slow them back down.
Most didn’t survive, but some both survived, and ended up somewhere they couldn’t without interfering with themselves. They successfully reproduced afterwards. The debris also followed the classic ripple pattern of the experiment.
Basically, there is nothing special about “life” when it comes to quantum mechanical effects, other than it’s on the big side.
Only 1 bacteria ever arrives. It’s the probability wave that interferes with itself.
With the Young’s double slit experiment, if you fire a single photon, you get a single photon arriving. It looks just like how a cannon ball flies. It’s only when you let hundreds go (either collectively or individually) that the interference pattern appears.
The end pattern is the probability that the photon (or bacteria) arrives at any given point on the receiver screen.
But the interference pattern only turns up after multiple detections. Each detection is just a single point on a board.
This means that the bacteria are identical down to the atom. Feels bigger than bacteria can be pushed through the double slit experiment?
Think of it like rolling a dice. Any given roll can only have a single number. However patterns can be detected by combining multiple rolls. E.g. a biased dice.
As for larger things. It’s possible, but the speed required goes up with mass, and not linearly. In theory a person could go through. They would be moving a significant fraction of the speed of light however. Catching them alive on the other side would be… difficult.
Kind of like Schrödinger who wanted to ridicule quantum mechanics interpretations with his cat in a box. And now it’s a famous analogy.
They have also experimentally tested an equivalent experiment with bacteria. They survived a trip through the double slit experiment.
There doesn’t seem to be an issue with it, other than it’s difficult and impractical.
Wait. What?
Anything moving has an associated wavelength. If that wavelength is long enough, you can do the young’s double slip experiment on it.
It was a few years ago, so the details are hazy. A scientific team accelerated a particularly small and sturdy bacteria fast enough that their speed produced a viable wavelength. They then sent the stream through 2 slits. They then captured the bacteria in aerogel (I think) to slow them back down.
Most didn’t survive, but some both survived, and ended up somewhere they couldn’t without interfering with themselves. They successfully reproduced afterwards. The debris also followed the classic ripple pattern of the experiment.
Basically, there is nothing special about “life” when it comes to quantum mechanical effects, other than it’s on the big side.
So. Something something duplicate an existing life form like a quantum photocopier? Or, what does the interference pattern of a bacteria looks like?
Only 1 bacteria ever arrives. It’s the probability wave that interferes with itself.
With the Young’s double slit experiment, if you fire a single photon, you get a single photon arriving. It looks just like how a cannon ball flies. It’s only when you let hundreds go (either collectively or individually) that the interference pattern appears.
The end pattern is the probability that the photon (or bacteria) arrives at any given point on the receiver screen.
But the interference pattern only turns up after multiple detections. Each detection is just a single point on a board. This means that the bacteria are identical down to the atom. Feels bigger than bacteria can be pushed through the double slit experiment?
The bacteria don’t need to be identical.
Think of it like rolling a dice. Any given roll can only have a single number. However patterns can be detected by combining multiple rolls. E.g. a biased dice.
As for larger things. It’s possible, but the speed required goes up with mass, and not linearly. In theory a person could go through. They would be moving a significant fraction of the speed of light however. Catching them alive on the other side would be… difficult.