Time Crystals, Freeze-Dried Sperm, and Batching Tasks
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 963 Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2021
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about time crystals; why researchers freeze-dried sperm on a postcard; and batching tasks instead of multitasking.
Two research teams say they've created time crystals by Briana Brownell
- Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real | Quanta Magazine. (2021, July 30). Quanta Magazine. https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-time-crystal-built-using-googles-quantum-computer-20210730/
- Mi, X., Ippoliti, M., Quintana, C., Greene, A., Chen, Z., Gross, J., Arute, F., Arya, K., Atalaya, J., Babbush, R., Bardin, J. C., Basso, J., Bengtsson, A., Bilmes, A., Bourassa, A., Brill, L., Broughton, M., Buckley, B. B., Buell, D. A., & Burkett, B. (2021). Observation of Time-Crystalline Eigenstate Order on a Quantum Processor. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.13571
- Randall, J., E, B. C., van, Galicia, A., H, A. M., Markham, M., J, T. D., Machado, F., Y, Y. N., & H, T. T. (2021). Observation of a many-body-localized discrete time crystal with a programmable spin-based quantum simulator. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.00736
Freeze-dried mouse sperm survives a trip on the surface of a postcard by Cameron Duke
- Heidt, A. (2021, August 5). Freeze-Dried Mouse Sperm Sent by Postcard Produces Baby Mice. The Scientist Magazine®; The Scientist Magazine. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/freeze-dried-mouse-sperm-sent-by-postcard-produces-baby-mice-69062
- Ito, D., Wakayama, S., Emura, R., Ooga, M., & Wakayama, T. (2021). Mailing viable mouse freeze-dried spermatozoa on postcards. IScience, 102815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102815
Multitasking Is Impossible, So Batch Tasks Instead by Ashley Hamer originally aired September 4, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/multitasking-is-impossible-how-a-flat-earth-would
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes, with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:08.0 | Today you learn about how researchers created a new type of matter called a time crystal, how we might be able to save |
| 0:14.8 | biodiversity by freeze-drying sperm, and why your brain isn't wired for |
| 0:20.1 | multitasking. Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:24.0 | When you think of a crystal, you might think of a diamond gem in a piece of jewelry, or a |
| 0:30.2 | snowflake fluttering from the sky, or the salt you sprinkle on your dinner. |
| 0:35.2 | All of these crystals have one important thing in common. They have a regular pattern of atoms in a lattice |
| 0:42.2 | with a specific symmetry in space. And maybe, just maybe, something |
| 0:48.2 | similar could be done with time. You heard that right. |
| 0:53.0 | Scientists are working to create time crystals, which would be an entirely new kind of matter. |
| 1:00.0 | They're doing it by using the same ideas that describe crystal structure in the three dimensions of space, |
| 1:06.1 | but in the fourth dimension of time. So something like the water in a glass has space translation symmetry. If you shrink to the size of an |
| 1:16.5 | atom, you could go anywhere in the water and see basically the same thing all around you. |
| 1:22.3 | But when that water freezes, the ice... basically the same thing all around you. |
| 1:23.1 | But when that water freezes, the ice crystal breaks |
| 1:26.7 | space translation symmetry. |
| 1:29.0 | You have to move in a very specific direction |
| 1:31.4 | by a very specific amount in order to see the same crystal lattice pattern you saw first. |
| 1:37.0 | Similarly, a time crystal has a regular pattern except in time rather than space. |
| 1:45.0 | But just like regular crystals are only symmetrical at specific points in space, |
| 1:51.0 | time crystals are only symmetrical at specific points in time. |
... |
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