The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon by Brian Clegg (PDF)

Description

The phenomenon that Einstein thought too spooky and strange to be trueWhat is entanglement? It’s a connection between quantum particles, the building blocks of the universe. Once two particles are entangled, a change to one of them is reflected—instantly—in the other, be they in the same lab or light-years apart. So counterintuitive is this phenomenon and its implications that Einstein himself called it “spooky” and thought that it would lead to the downfall of quantum theory. Yet scientists have since discovered that quantum entanglement, the “God Effect,” was one of Einstein’s few—and perhaps one of his greatest—mistakes.What does it mean? The possibilities offered by a fuller understanding of the nature of entanglement read like something out of science fiction: communications devices that could span the stars, codes that cannot be broken, computers that dwarf today’s machines in speed and power, teleportation, and more. In The God Effect, veteran science writer Brian Clegg has written an exceptionally readable and fascinating (and equation-free) account of entanglement, its history, and its application. Fans of Brian Greene and Amir Aczel and those interested in the marvelous possibilities coming down the quantum physics road will find much to marvel, illuminate, and delight.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review Clegg does an excellent job of explaining this complex situation in nontechnical terms… implications for technological advances are huge, and Clegg is at his finest as he embeds potential advances in a broad historical context. –Publishers WeeklyA delightful book. The author does a superb job of presenting the story of a remarkable concept – quantum entanglement – in a relaxed and entertaining style. –Professor Artur Ekert, Leigh Trapnell Professor of Quantum Physics, Cambridge University From the Back Cover “A marvelously clear and engaging account of the people and ideas involved in trying to understand the deepest mysteries of the quantum world and convert them into a useful technology.”—Gregory Chaitin, author of Meta Math! The Quest for Omega”If you thought science was a predictable commonsense business—maybe even a little dull—you haven’t encountered quantum entanglement. A physical phenomenon so strange and all pervasive that this book calls it the ‘God Effect,’ entanglement leaves common sense shattered.”—from The God EffectIf you’ve ever wondered whether mankind might someday communicate across the vast distances between the stars, develop codes that cannot be broken, devise computers that would make finding a needle in a haystack trivial, or even learn to create teleportation, then the amazing science portrayed in Brian Clegg’s The God Effect will astound and fascinate with its portrayal of a universe—our own—so strange that imagination can scarcely suffice to grasp it. About the Author BRIAN CLEGG is the author of Ten Billion Tomorrows, Final Frontier, Extra Sensory, Gravity, How to Build a Time Machine, Armageddon Science, Before the Big Bang, Upgrade Me, and The God Effect among others. He holds a physics degree from Cambridge and has written regular columns, features, and reviews for numerous magazines. He lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and two children. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Author Brian Clegg wrote in the Preface to this 2006 book, “If you thought science was a predictable, commonsense business—maybe even a little dull—you haven’t encountered quantum entanglement. A physical phenomenon so strange and all pervasive that this book calls it ‘the God Effect,’ entanglement leaves common sense shattered… entanglement can reach instantaneously from one end of the universe to the other… entanglement has powerful potential uses from unbreakable encryption to teleportation. It’s the strangest effect in all of science, yet hardly anyone has heard of it… The topic of this book, quantum entanglement, takes the absurdities and delights … to a new level. Entanglement is remarkable in its own right, but even more amazing are the recent discoveries of real-world applications for this strange effect. Be prepared to encounter surprise and wonder.”In the first chapter he explains, “Entanglement … refers to a very specific and strange concept, an idea so bizarre, so fundamental, and so far reaching that I have called it ‘the God Effect.’ Once two particles become entangled, it doesn’t matter where those particles are; they retain an immediate and powerful connection that can be harnessed to perform seemingly impossible tasks… The phenomenon at the heart of this book is a linkage between the incomprehensibly small particles that make up the world around us. At the quantum level, it is possible to link particles together so completely that the linked objects (photons, electrons, and atoms, for instance) become, to all intents and purposes, part of the same thing. Even if these entangled particles are then separated to opposite sides of the universe, they retain this strange connection. Make a change to one particle, and that change is instantly reflected in the other(s)—however far apart they may be. The God Effect has an unsettling omnipresence.” (Pg. 1-2)He observes, “it is worth remembering that [Einstein’s] opposition to quantum theory did not go away just because he stopped coming up with new challenges. On September 7, 1944… he wrote to Max Born: ‘I [believe] in complete law and order in a world which objectively exists, and which I… am trying to capture… Even the great initial success of the quantum theory does not make me believe in the fundamental dice game…’ And as late as … just three years before his death, Einstein was still scathing on the subject of quantum theory: ‘The theory reminds me a little of the system of delusions of an exceedingly intelligent paranoic, concocted of incoherent elements of thoughts.’ For Einstein, quantum theory (and by implication entanglement) would never make sense.” (Pg. 43-44)He explains, “It was not the existence of quantum theory per se that offended [John] Bell, but the fuzziness of what was said about it. He also felt that there was something missing. His natural inclination was to side with Einstein against the vast majority of physicists, in his criticism of the ideas at the heart of the quantum world. The purpose of his intervention in 1964 was to devise a new thought experiment that made it clearer that only if quantum theory was wrong would you have local reality—’reality’ here meaning that there were true, if hidden, values of what was being measured rather than a fuzzy probability distribution… However, many in the scientific community, happy that quantum theory explained the observed results and not wanting to be drawn into philosophical arguments, were prepared to accept Bohr’s point of view, without thinking about what this implied. As long as the result matched experiment, you could sweep under the carpet any discomfort caused by the interpretation.” (Pg. 48-49)He notes, “What [Alain] Aspect’s experiments showed is that, beyond reasonable doubt, Bell’s theorem provided a successful confirmation of quantum theory. The experiment came up with the results predicted by the theory, demonstrating that Einstein’s assumption, that local reality always holds, is false. The phenomenon Einstein considered spooky action at a distance was real, not the unacceptable outcome in a thought experiment.” (Pg. 69)He says, “ANY message traveling faster than light also travels backward in time. If entanglement did mean we could send messages with no transmission delay, at an infinite speed, we would have the technology to build an informational time machine.” (Pg. 127) He suggests, “When time travel, or the simpler concept of sending messages through time, is discussed, the whole idea is often dismissed because of a lack of evidence. If it were possible to send messages back in time, surely we would be flooded with messages from the future?… The realities of relativity mean that an instant message can never travel back to a point in time before the launch of the probe that relays it. We have to have already built the technology before we can receive messages from the future. This is an extreme version of the technique, necessary to produce large-scale time slips… to activate the paradox of the machine that switches itself off before it sent the message that would activate the switch… this technique would make it possible to distort the very fabric of reality. IF there were a way of sending a truly instant message.” (Pg. 139-140)He continues, “Yes, it’s true—if you could send a genuinely instantaneous message … it would be received before it was sent. Yes, it’s true—the spooky link of entanglement simply disregards distance and acts immediately. But however hard you try, it is not going to be possible to make use of that link to send a message… The only way to get anything usable out of entanglement is to communicate SOMETHING in a conventional way as well, and that takes you back down to light speed at best.” (Pg. 144)He acknowledges, “should a quantum computer appear by magic on the desk of a computer scientist, its ability to factor large primes would have both a real potential for causing chaos and the capacity to transform the business of search. ‘Appear by magic’ is about as far as we’ve got right now. There is no such thing as a quantum computer to run these clever programs on… We have already seen that entanglement is needed to make superdense coding possible. In fact, there seems to be no way to have a working quantum computer at all WITHOUT making use of entanglement..” (Pg. 187)He observes, “The reason so much work has been put into quantum computers without them even existing is that… most developments in quantum computing are entirely separate from the technology. Quantum computing and its benefits can be described with math and a knowledge of quantum mechanics alone. The technology to make it a physical reality may take a long time to perfect, but it will come. This is likely to take ten to twenty years, or even a more pessimistic one hundred years, but the clock is ticking.” (Pg. 191-192)He considers teleportation: “Thanks to the uncertainty principle, the only way you can teleport a particle, the only way you can apply its state to another particle remotely, is if you can manage to do this without ever finding out what the particle is really like… entanglement enables us to strip the state from one particle and transfer it to another, without ever knowing what that state it. If this seems paradoxically insoluble, we should remember that entanglement is all about making paradoxes real. The trick here is to use two sets of information, one transmitted by the spooky quantum link of entanglement but never observed by anyone, the other known and sent by a conventional channel—say, by radio… No one ever finds out what is communicated by the entanglement link, so the quantum state isn’t disturbed by it. When you get down to detail, quantum teleportation has a very real resemblance to a magic trick—you need to keep an extra particle up your sleeve… At the receiver end, the second entangled particle is modified by the information sent across the radio link—the information that is known. Now the receiver particle has become, to all intents and purposes, the same particle that was originally examined at the transmitter.” (Pg. 208-210)But he admits, “even if there can never be ‘real’ teleportation of physical objects, it doesn’t mean that this isn’t a development of great importance. Teleportation even in its limited form will prove vitally useful in making quantum computers real… Can we ever use teleportation on solid objects with structure—perhaps even with life? Even for a single particle this is a nontrivial challenge. Teleportation experiments to date have focused on a single property of a particle… but to truly teleport a particle it would be necessary to teleport all the properties separately. As Professor Artur Ekert comments, ‘This is mathematically possible, but it may be way more difficult to do it in the lab!’” (Pg. 212-213) He adds, “There’s a long way to go down a path that could see the transportation of a living creature, however simple. The process would have to begin with something like a tiny crystal, move on to a virus… and eventually work up to a bacterium… And the leap from there to large-scale life, such as a human being, is even greater and probably will never be practical.” (Pg. 215)He points out, “Quantum science has to accept that the experimenter exists and is part of the experiment, an acknowledgement that appeals to the postmodernist urge to deny the existence of objectivity… this ‘fluffiness’ appeals to some who argue that quantum physics ties in well with traditional Eastern philosophy and religions… Perhaps the strongest influence on the idea that quantum theory is somehow a vindication of ancient Eastern wisdom was a book called ‘The Dancing Wu Li masters,’ written by Gary Zukav… Zukav’s book was very successful but, though it did bring aspects of modern physics to readers who had never heard of them before, it would also inevitably have made scientists even more wary of quantum entanglement being picked up by the lunatic fringe…” (Pg. 237)He concludes, “Quantum encryption, quantum computing, and quantum teleportation could be just the start of the new quantum revolution. Through quantum entanglement, new quantum effects are exploding onto the practical world scene. There can be little doubt that quantum entanglement, the God Effect, IS the next big thing.” (Pg. 245)This book will be of keen interest to those seeking speculative ideas about quantum theory, and particularly quantum entanglement.

⭐Don’t bother reading the essays others write for reviews, here’s what you need to know:-You can enter this book knowing almost nothing about quantum entanglement and understand it with some effort.-There are some times in the book where the author seems to go on 5-10 page tangents that seem irrelevant, but the information there usually connects to a later topic. There definitely is some unnecessary beefing up in there, though, and that’s the only fault keeping this from 5 stars.-The book is a decade old, but none of the information in there is known at this time to be inaccurate. You’re just missing some (not much) new stuff.Overall, I do recommend you buy it if you’re on the fence. It’s full of facts that will blow your mind and are really difficult to find anywhere online.

⭐This is a fascinating book even if you know nothing about quantum mechanics. It’s easy to read and very informative. Quantum mechanics is the future. Time to get acquainted with it. You may be surprised at how interesting it actually is, and you don’t have to be a genius to understand it. Highly recommend it.

⭐I can’t say “I love it” because I didn’t get the book yet. I’m the kind of person that is drawn to mystery. It’s the curiosity trait in me. I know there is a concept called “quantum physics”, but the spirituality aspect seems quite novel to prove, as yet.

⭐After my first read through, I think the book is amazing. The descriptions of phenomena and the explanations of the theory behind why they work were easy to read and follow, even past midnight. This is definitely more of an introductory book to the topic, but it covers a breadth of topics within entanglement. I recommend this book to those looking for an explanation of why entanglement is significant.

⭐This and other books on quantum physics say some of the same things. Helpful to understand that science is still grasping to understand the bigness of all that God has created. Science was never a preferred subject for me, but I did wade through most of it!

⭐Loved it. It not only explained the story of quantum entanglement but also was a good foundation for things like quantum mechanics and quantum computing. I thought Clegg did a good job of making in explainable to the non-physicists of the world.

⭐If you have ever really wondered what quantum mechanics is really all about, and you have a deep distrust of Ramtha, then this is a great little book. You can get clear explanation of some of the weirdest parts of Q and some of the most exciting.

⭐I enjoyed this and the book passes my Beach Read Test. Much of the first half of the book deals with the history of the development of the theory. That could be dull but the author is a talented writer and he swerves around the trap in a Lewis Hamiltony kind of way. With the groundwork done, he then gives over the remainder of the book to some of the practical aplications of entanglement. If you’re thinking of buying this book for one of your science-mad children, be warned that it’s a book more suited to someone studying A-levels rather than GCSEs. This is the fourth of Brian Clegg’s books that I have purchased; they’ve all been reliably good value for money. I’ll buy more of them.

⭐Very good explanation of quantum entanglement, I have purchased most of Brian’s books and they are informative but a negative I always feel from his writing is that it can be quite bland at times, he would be better taking some tips from Carlo Rovelli who can communicate with great success without being dull (Brian I feel has a touch of envy with Rovelli’s success)That aside Brian is a very good communicator of science and I would certainly recommend this book if you want to understand quantum entertainment.

⭐Fabulous book for the non-physics educated!I’m fascinated with this subject but with zero knowledge of physics. This book’s explanations are clear and concise. Not a dry read either, which is quite an achievement.I’m researching this subject for my fiction writing and this book is so very helpful.

⭐Loved the book,, A well-written book on Entanglement

⭐Interesting book to read. Everything is explained really well. Easy to read

Keywords

Free Download The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon in PDF format
The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon PDF Free Download
Download The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon 2009 PDF Free
The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon 2009 PDF Free Download
Download The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon PDF
Free Download Ebook The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon