ah, fuck. when you hear a song for the first time ever, and it describes exactly how you had been feeling for the two days [weeks/months/etc] prior. you cherish it, but feel bad for it, knowing it’ll forever be tied to that.

Pundt is the other side of the equation that balances the more extreme tendencies of Cox. He is also a talented musician in his own right, as evidenced by the fact that one of the best songs from Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter‘s masterpiece third record, is written and sung by Pundt – Desire Lines.

As Lotus Plaza then, Pundt gets to showcase his own work and music. As can be expected, the music he produces is similar to Deerhunter‘s best works. There is a lot of reverb and melodic shoe-gaze happening, and the songs for the most part are either instrumental or the wordings are so hazy that they blur onto the music. Spooky Action at a Distance is his sophomore work as Lotus Plaza and it is a tighter and more focused effort than his debut, The Floodlight Collective. It is a very sonically pleasing record and one that is highly recommended for fans of Deerhunter.

Lotus Plaza is playing at the Luminary Center on 4/30. Be sure to check him out (tickets here).

Listen to singles Strangers and Monoliths below to get your Deerhunter fix.

Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance comes out 4/2 via Kranky (order here).

Strangers

Monoliths

it’s completely amazing. you can stream it HERE.

spooky action at a distance is out today via kranky.

Lotus Plaza

Related articles

• Lotus Plaza – ‘Monoliths’ (flick-thru.com)

Amazing new song from their second album Spooky Action at a Distance, Lotus Plaza brings a great sound to life in “Monoliths”. To be honest the is the first I am hearing of Lotus Plaza, but am stoked to get to know them better. Check them out and get their new album HERE.

Felix the Hat,
Live Music City, high hopes!

on april 2nd, lockett pundt’s side project lotus plaza will release a sophomore LP titled spooky action at a distance via kranky. below check out the dreamy track “out of touch” as well as their tour.

TOUR:

04/13 at lincoln hall [chicago] w/ disappears
04/14 at the yellow barn [ann arbor] w/ disappears
04/15 at the garrison [toronto] w/ disappears
04/16 at casa del popolo [montreal] w/ disappears
04/17 at the haunt [ithaca] w/ lotus plaza, disappears
04/18 at valentine’s [albany] w/ lotus plaza, disappears
04/19 at glasslands gallery [brooklyn] w/ disappears
04/20 at johnny brenda’s [philadelphia] w/ disappears
04/21 at king’s barcade [raliegh] w/ disappears
04/22 at pilot light [knoxville] w/ disappears
04/25 at the bottletree [birmingham] w/ disappears
04/28 at club dada [dallas] w/ disappears
04/29 at hi-tone cafe [memphis] w/ disappears
04/30 at the luminary center for the arts [st. louis]
05/01 at the record bar [kansas city]
05/02 at larimer lounge [denver]
05/03 at urban lounge [salt lake city]
05/04 at neurolux [boise]
05/05 at neumos [seattle]
05/06 at the media club [vancouver]
05/07 at doug fir lounge [portland]
05/09 at the independent [san francisco]
05/10 at echo [los angeles]
05/11 at soda bar [san diego]
05/12 at plush [tucson]
05/13 at lowbrow palace [el paso]
05/15 at fitzgerald’s [houston]
05/16 at one eyed jacks [new orleans]

Confirming such a fundamental concept as “where mass comes from” would provide another exciting step forward in our understanding of the nature of the universe.

The Higgs boson is the last remaining predicted but unobserved particle in the Standard Model.  The Standard Model is sometimes referred to as a “Theory of Nearly Everything” in that it addresses many, but not all, facets of the laws of physics in our universe.  The Higgs boson is one portion of this model that is itself a component of a larger (but still incomplete) attempt to solve a scientific mystery spawned decades ago.

Contemplated by a layman such as myself, the field of theoretical physics may be understood as a science of reconciliation.

Limited technology, beginning with our own eyes, allows us to observe various phenomena. The rotation of the Earth.  Magnetism of certain materials.  Electricity via a lightning bolt.  As technology improves, we are able to observe and analyze an ever-increasing number of aspects of the natural universe.  One role physics plays is to explain not only what it is that we are observing, but also how these phenomena relate to one another and interact, especially when independent observation of them leaves explanatory gaps, or even contradictions.

The development of physics from the time of Newton to the era of Einstein was more or less linear, at least in retrospect.  The progress of reconciliation didn’t always come at a consistent pace, and, like all science, some discoveries were predicted years in advance (as would be the case once the Higgs boson is discovered), while others were unexpected.

The Large Hadron Supercollider is the largest machine ever built

Yet, Einstein’s work in general relativity and special relativity seemingly moved us into the final stage of the journey begun by the astoundingly-precocious classical theories developed centuries earlier by Newton.  Einstein’s remarkable efforts on general relativity forever clarified our understanding of the relationships among gravity, space, and time, thrusting us into a new era of knowledge that brought us closer than ever to comprehending the essential nature of our universe.

Put simply, if there were an underlying Truth (capital “T”) to be found, Einstein’s work appeared to move us nearer than ever to discovering it.  It was the next evolution of the Newtonian model of a clockwork universe.

But there was a problem.

Not long after Einstein concluded the work that would earn him a place among the greatest scientific minds in human history, another area of physics began to take shape from its humble nineteenth-century origins.

Quantum physics, which generally concerns the physics of the very small, developed much of its modern theory in the years following Einstein’s landmark work.  The critical challenge it presented and continues to present is that the observable phenomena at the sub-atomic level are sometimes incompatible with general relativity.

This is arguably the central problem physics has faced for about a century, particularly the past fifty years.  Attempt after attempt to create a unifying “Theory of Everything” has fallen short of that goal.

Quantum physics presents a host of strange findings that are incomprehensible from a non-sub-atomic perspective.  The inability to measure both the location and momentum of a particle simultaneously.  The possibility of limitless parallel universes.  Particles that seem to exist in two places at once.  Or, one of the most curious facets of quantum physics, entanglement.

Quantum entanglement stands for the principle that particles separated by some measure of space may correlate in terms of momentum, spin, etc, despite the fact that there is no obvious reason why a change to one particle should be matched by the other particle, given the aforementioned space between the two.  From the point of view of traditional physics, this result (which research has proven time and again to be true) is nonsensical, especially considering that the amount of space between the particles seems to provide no bar to the preservation of the entanglement.  In theory, the two particles could be light years apart, yet still entangled.

Attempting to reconcile a feature such as this with the everyday world we know is beyond daunting.  Any rough “macro world” analogy we might provide, such as a man in New York City whose hand hurts when his twin brother in Los Angeles burns his own hand on a hot stove, results in an example that is gibberish or fantasy when viewed through the lens of empirical science.

So flummoxed by the contradictory implications the existence of quantum entanglement created, Einstein derisively referred to it as “spukhafte Fernwirkung,” which translates as “spooky action at a distance.”

No one disputes the importance of Einstein’s discoveries, but, to the extent discoveries ever have finality in the first place, that quality seemed greatly diminished by advances in quantum theory.

Ever the genius, and despite some initial skepticism, Einstein understood fully that quantum physics wasn’t simply scientific voodoo.  Einstein himself became keen on reconciling quantum physics with his and others’ work concerning relativity.  He spent much of the twilight of his life attempting, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to determine how mid-twentieth-century progress at the quantum level could mesh with our apparently-clear understanding of physics on a macro scale.

Even now, the greatest minds in the field of physics cannot conclusively explain how quantum physics can indisputably function in the same universe simultaneously governed by laws of general relativity.

Such is the difficulty in explaining Tim Tebow.

Myriad experts buried Tebow prior to his ever taking a snap at the professional level.  His throwing mechanics were terrible.  His release was too slow.  He held the ball too low.  His offense at Florida did little to prepare him for the pro game.  His passing accuracy wasn’t nearly up to NFL standards.  His footwork was questionable at best.  True, his abilities as a power runner were rare for a quarterback, but that asset would be mitigated or eliminated by an NFL defense.

Even as they praised him for being a “fine human being,” pundits questioned whether Tebow would be able to be an NFL quarterback given his unique but finite skill set.  Even most of those who thought he had a long-term future in the NFL envisioned him as something other than a starting quarterback.  Perhaps a tight end.  Perhaps a situational player.

Although useful, statistics occasionally run counter to public perception.

We live in an era of sports fandom dominated by statistics and analysis.  The very concept of “intangibles” is anathema to the current crop of young, talented, progressive-minded, often cynical sports journalists.  That war is already long-settled in baseball, where any advocacy for taking into account qualities that aren’t tied to numbers (or even advocating using the “wrong” metrics as a method of evaluation) will attract vitriolic attacks from those who have won this battle.  At a minimum, those who run afoul of these new mores will be deemed incredibly stupid and/or pre-historic.  Tebow also irritates this portion of the media because, among other reasons, so many of his advocates cite unquantifiable concepts like “inspiration of his teammates” or “knowing how to win” as his greatest strengths.

Statistics are important in football, albeit less so than in baseball.  But football takes a back seat to no sport in terms of player evaluation.  Players are measured and scrutinized in nearly every way imaginable at the NFL Draft Combine.  Teams employ a healthy number of personnel whose primary responsibility is to evaluate the prospects and help predict performance.  Millions of dollars are at stake when teams make incorrect predictions and poor decisions.

As such, like the SABR movement did in baseball over the past generation, NFL teams are looking to make the “science” of evaluation as exact as possible.  Sabermetrics have been an invaluable tool in granting baseball organizations a more accurate view of players’ abilities and possible future performance.  Similarly, football scouting has become infinitely more sophisticated and specific over the past thirty or forty years.

With that sophistication and specificity came a sharper consensus about how an NFL quarterback “should” look and play.  When an otherwise-highly-regarded college quarterback doesn’t precisely fit that mold, pundits raise questions about that player’s ability to do well at the NFL level.  Drew Brees (due to his modest height) comes to mind as an obvious recent example.

Unlike someone such as Brees who had a single drawback among otherwise-lauded traits, Tim Tebow’s defects seemed too numerous and too great to overcome.

Here is what has happened since Tebow replaced Kyle Orton as the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos prior to their Week 7 game against the Miami Dolphins:

Broncos 18, Dolphins 15 (Denver trailed 15-0 late in the fourth quarter)
Lions 45, Broncos 10
Broncos 38, Raiders 24 (Denver trailed 17-7 and 24-14 in the third quarter)
Broncos 17, Chiefs 10
Broncos 17, Jets 13 (Denver trailed before Tebow scored in the final minute)
Broncos 16, Chargers 13 (Denver trailed by 3 in the fourth quarter, won in OT)
Broncos 35, Vikings 32 (Denver trailed by 8 in the fourth quarter)
Broncos 13, Bears 10 (Denver trailed by 10 in the fourth quarter, won in OT)

The curiosity here is not merely that the Broncos have won these game, nor is it even a matter of how they’ve won (including four consecutive fourth-quarter comebacks).  It is that they have been able to do so while Tim Tebow remains the player most thought him to be[1].

Football purists know a “real” quarterback when they see one.  Even if they may quibble on the details of the prototype, they could all agree that that ideal wasn’t Tim Tebow.  One such person was the Broncos’ Executive VP for Football Operations, John Elway, who ascended to that position after Tebow was already on the roster.

Elway embodied the ideal QB model during his Hall of Fame career.  He has, at times, seemed as disappointed as Rachel Phelps, the scheming Cleveland Indians’ owner in Major League whose team’s winning ways upset her plans to move the franchise to Miami.  Elway (before backtracking recently) reiterated earlier this year that Tebow’s play had done nothing to alter the Broncos’ need for a solution at quarterback[2].

Despite Tebow’s flaws, he has managed to forge a 7-1 record as a starter, plus a near-comeback against San Diego in a now-forgotten relief appearance just before he replaced Orton for good.  His winning percentage as a starting quarterback is second only to Aaron Rodgers’ perfect 13-0 mark.

What I am here to tell you is that this does not make sense.

Those who fall into the anti-Tebow camp will point out that the defense has been excellent (conveniently omitting the Oakland and Minnesota games), the special teams has been outstanding, and that Tebow has gotten incredibly lucky at times: For example, the two Marion Barber blunders last week in the Chicago game, or the Bears’ decision to go into more of a prevent look on defense in the fourth quarter.  This is all true and accurate and relevant, but still doesn’t suffice as a complete explanation.

Unfortunately, Hoge has recently changed course and followed the ESPN company line to praise Tebow. This is a shame, since his original assertions (including most of this one) have not been proven wrong.

They will also point out that, as described above, all of the problems Tebow has always had stubbornly persist for an ever-growing audience to witness each week.  His passes often look horrendous, as if thrown by a personal protector during a fake punt.  His mechanics are still wonky.  He plants off the wrong foot at times.  He overthrows receivers by ten yards.  He usually can’t hit anything when he rolls to his right.

They’ll say that Tebow is a constant in this equation, not a variable.  He is who he always has been and will forever be.

They’ll add that he’s merely this year’s Vince Young or Doug Flutie, or perhaps Trent Dilfer.  Yes, he may have exceeded their single-season accomplishments by some measures, but simply because he has been a party to more surprising victories does not mean that this is truly novel.  As in baseball, wins aren’t a good metric for an individual player’s success.  At a minimum, what we’ve seen from Tebow is not “magic.”

Somehow, though, Tebow also has the lowest interception percentage in the league.  Not the lowest number of interceptions, the lowest percentage.  He’s in the top five in the league in touchdown percentage and yards per pass completion.  He’s second in the NFL in yards per carry.  Not second among quarterbacks, second among all players.  He is, of course, tops in the league in comeback victories.

I repeat: This does not make sense.

Everything I know about football — even taking into account prevent defenses, great special teams, Von Miller, and everything else — tells me that it should not realistically be possible for an NFL player who has trouble consistently throwing a spiral to become a suddenly-great quarterback in critical situations.

This should not be possible under realistic conditions.

Looking at the oft-repeated example from last week, Tebow was 3-for-16 for 45 yards during the first three quarters against Chicago.  He then went 18-for-24 for 191 yards in the fourth quarter and overtime, and two or three of those throws were intentional incomplete passes.  His completion percentage went from 19% to 75% as he helped the Broncos to victory in a game Fox commentator Daryl Johnston called “a non-winnable situation.”

His stat lines from other games reveal numerous head-scratching results.  He only completed two passes(!) in the Kansas City game, but he accounted for both touchdowns in the 17-10 win via a bomb to Eric Decker and a TD run of his own.  He had played so poorly (or so it seemed) against Miami that the CBS broadcast team was actually surprised when he returned to the field with five minutes left and his team down by 15.  He promptly threw two touchdown passes and scored the game-tying two-point conversion.

The detractors — the same ones who have branded Tebow a non-NFL quarterback from day one — reiterate and maintain that all of his issues still exist.

Here’s the entire point: They are absolutely right.

And, for some reason, it doesn’t matter.  It should.  But it doesn’t.

In the same way that the greatest genius of the twentieth century initially scoffed at the concept of entanglement, experts who know more about football than I ever will cannot wrap their minds around Tim Tebow.  It’s not because they’ve been proven wrong.  It’s precisely because they are right.  The talent evaluators are right about his motion and abilities, the journalists and stat-heads are right about the inadequacy of his measurable performance.

The critics are right about every Tebow defect.  And, still, he wins.

He shouldn’t.  But he does.  Just as everything we know about physics at the macro level tells us that what we observe at the quantum level should not be possible.  And, still, it is.

That is the crux of this.  It isn’t that general relativity is wrong.  It isn’t that quantum physics is wrong.  No matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how impossible, both are correct.

It isn’t that the anti-Tebow camp is wrong about him.  It isn’t that Tebow’s defenders are wrong about him.  No matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how impossible, both are correct.

When the boundaries and implications of quantum physics began to expand, the capital-“T” Truth that once seemed to have mankind on the precipice of a humanity-altering discovery suddenly appeared to be just as distant as ever.

Enter string theory.

String theory is a modern attempt at not only explaining the nature of the universe in an all-encompassing way, but also, in doing so, reconciling the world of general relativity with the strange models of quantum mechanics.

The trouble with string theory is that it not only hasn’t been proven, but it is also probably unprovable by any known means.  It may be unprovable by any achievable technology.

This creates something of a dilemma for scientists: Once we get too far away from proven (or provable) models and move into the realm of theory that, while logical, cannot be tested empirically . . . are we still scientists?  Or are we philosophers?

Such is the danger when Browning’s notion of man’s reach exceeding his grasp comes to fruition.

We like things to add up.  We like tidiness.  We also like to believe that revelations of undeniable weight have not only intrinsic, immutable value but some permanence as well.

But even the most brilliant and knowledgeable physicists in the world seem to have hit a wall.  We may never be able to reconcile how general relativity and the laws of quantum mechanics can both simultaneously be correct.  For now, we must make peace with contradictory notions.  To try to reconcile the two may require resorting to a quasi-scientific solution.

We’re in that same place with Tebow.  Those who revere him and those who revile him over off-field topics, real or imagined, will never move off of their positions.  However, for those of us focused on football, we must accept the fact that Tim Tebow is a poor “NFL quarterback” . . . who somehow remains very effective, even if those two ideas were (are?) incompatible.  We are left with two contradictory notions that remain equally valid: (1) Tim Tebow does not have the skills to be a good “NFL quarterback.”  (2) Tim Tebow is nonetheless a successful NFL quarterback in his own right, and not entirely because of his supporting cast.

My mind and my instincts both say that this can’t continue.  Like the wildcat fad of a few years ago, teams will begin to adjust to Denver’s unconventional offense.  It will become more and more difficult for the Broncos to have success against quality teams.  They’ll still be dangerous for the rest of this season, but will probably wind up at 9-7 or 10-6 and get blown out by Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs.  Tebow’s effectiveness will be limited next season, and the Tebow-centric offense will be as marginalized by 2013 as the wildcat is now.  Tebow will go down in NFL history as a latter-day Don Majkowski.  He’ll be a part of Bronco team lore forever, and he’ll be remembered on some level for this run and his great college career, but will largely be forgotten in a decade’s time.

This is the general relativist in me talking.

The Broncos face a 10-3 New England team this Sunday.  All of my football acumen leads me to the conclusion that the Patriots should win this game by at least two touchdowns.  They have the best offense in the AFC.  They’ll be able to put 30-50 points on the board, even against Denver’s solid defense.  Bill Belichick will be able to gameplan defensively for Tebow’s narrow abilities and force him to make mistakes that other team’s haven’t.  A result akin to Tebow’s one loss (a 45-10 drubbing against the Lions before the offense was retooled around him over the next couple of weeks) wouldn’t be out of the question here, although the Patriots’ suspect secondary may make it more like a 42-24 or 38-21 game.

On the other hand, the Broncos’ season stopped making sense almost two months ago.  I see no reason why it should resume doing so now.

Until it does, I’ll enjoy every second of it.

It is different.  It is exciting.  It is polarizing.  It is compelling.

It is, above all else, not entirely explainable.

Long live entanglement.

______

[1]The opposition to Tebow, of course, is about more than his throwing motion.  People object to his religiosity and the perceived ideology that comes with it.  I’ve heard two left-leaning acquaintances of mine just in the past week state that they openly root against Tebow and/or refuse to watch his games unless absolutely necessary because they perceive him as an instrument of “hate” (meaning views different from their own).  They believe any success he experiences will lead to “dangerous” potential results for our country.  Of course, were I to suggest that I won’t see a Sean Penn movie because of his views, they would attack that stance for the absurdity that it is.  My own view is that I’m neither an evangelical nor a Baptist, but I enjoy football.  So, I stick to that.

There’s also the issue of Tebow oversaturation.  Sometimes these two go hand-in-hand, but the latter is simply the normal human response of growing weary of hearing about the same story over and over in the media.  Basically, people who take issue on these grounds will naturally come to hate any person or team that appears on ESPN too often.  See also Red Sox – Yankees.

Neither of these fall into the category of what I’m describing above or are within the scope of this article.

[2]This entire saga must be particularly frustrating for Elway.  He was the anti-Tebow: The ideal quarterback as constructed from scratch in a factory.  Absurdly strong arm.  Superb scrambling and running ability.  Quick release.  Big frame.  High “football IQ.”  In short, great at everything.  All strengths, no weaknesses.  Perhaps the most talented all-around quarterback ever to play the game.

Yet, he began his career with two strikes against him.  First, a controversial proclamation that he would resume his professional baseball career rather than sign with the hapless Baltimore Colts, a move that forced the Colts to trade him to Denver for pennies on the dollar.  Even during a time when sports media wasn’t as ubiquitous, this created a fair amount of negative PR for Elway outside of Denver before he ever suited up.

Secondly, Elway found himself in an offensive system that did little to showcase his talents.  Elway nonetheless quickly emerged as one of the league’s best players.  However, had he not been operating within the Dan Reeves system, Elway may have set passing marks that would have rivaled Dan Marino’s.

A pair of diamond crystals has been linked by quantum entanglement. This means that a vibration in the crystals could not be meaningfully assigned to one or other of them: both crystals were simultaneously vibrating and not vibrating.

Quantum entanglement — interdependence of quantum states between particles not in physical contact — has been well established between quantum particles such as atoms at ultra-cold temperatures. But like most quantum effects, it doesn’t tend to survive either at room temperature or in objects large enough to see with the naked eye.
…
Entanglement occurs when two quantum particles interact with each other so that their quantum states become interdependent. If the first particle is in state A, say, then the other must be in state B, and vice versa.

Until a measurement is made of one of the particles, its state is undetermined: it can be regarded as being in both states A and B simultaneously, known as a superposition. The act of measuring ‘collapses’ this superposition into just one of the possible states.

But if the particles are entangled, then this measurement also determines the state of the other particle — even if they have become separated by a vast distance. The effect of the measurement is transmitted instantaneously to the other particle, through what Albert Einstein sceptically called ‘spooky action at a distance’.

Weird as it is, quantum entanglement is real — and could be useful. In a technique called quantum cryptography, entangled photons of light have been used to transmit information in such a way that any interception is detectable.
…
But superpositions and entanglement are usually seen as delicate states, easily disrupted by random atomic jostling in a warm environment. This scrambling also tends to happen very quickly if the quantum states contain many interacting particles – in other words, for larger objects.
…
[Ian] Walmsley and colleagues got round this by entangling synchronized atomic vibrations called phonons in diamond. Phonons are wavelike motions of many atoms in a lattice, rather like sound waves in air, and they occur in all solids. But in diamond, the stiffness of the lattice means that the phonons have very high frequencies and energy, and are therefore not usually active even at room temperature.
…
Walmsley is … optimistic. “Diamond could form the basis of a powerful technology for practical quantum information processing,” he says. “The optical properties of diamond make it ideal for producing tiny optical circuits on chips.”

How is the entanglement actually created? Start with a laser and create two photons (bundles of light) which are in the spooky state. Use one to excite a phonon (bundle of a sound wave) in one crystal, the other in another crystal. The entanglement of the photons is then transferred to the phonons. Since the phonons involve coherent motions of quintillions of atoms together, so they are hard to disrupt.

An editorial in Science puts this achievement in perspective:

The results confirm that quantum phenomena may persist in ambient conditions in a laboratory-scale system and point toward a possible platform for ultrafast quantum information processing at room temperature, based on optical phonons.

A hundred year old theory may be about to spawn technology for your desktop.

This communication between two such entangled particles has been measured by researchers at University of Geneva in Switzerland to be at least 10,000 times the speed of light.  What makes this “spooky” (Albert Einstein, who believed exceeding the speed of light was impossible, called it “spooky action”) is that there is no physical link whatsoever between the two particles — no waves, no electrons, no particles pass between them.

This has led scientists to believe that spooky action may be controlled by something existing beyond conventional spacetime.  In other words, there is now scientific evidence for the existence of nonmaterial reality.

This quote from renowned scientist and founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Robert Jastrow, now seems even more appropriate:  “Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover. That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work, is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.”

The discovery of spooky action now adds even more proof that supernatural forces are at work in the physical world.  It seems that science is close to discovering the spiritual reality that surrounds us.

Here’s another quotation from Robert Jastrow:  “Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks: ‘What cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter or energy into the universe?’ And science cannot answer these questions.  For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

In this ultraviolet image (upper L), several weeks-old Supernova 2007uy is seen in galaxy NGC2770, taken on January 7, 2008, with a close-up, X-ray image of that supernova beneath. New Supernova 2008D (R) appears onto the scene in these images taken January 9, 2008, giving scientists the unique opportunity to witness the birth of a supernova. Thanks to a fortunate observation with NASA’s Swift satellite, astronomers, for the first time, have caught a normal supernova at the moment of its birth–the first instant when an exploding star begins spewing its energy into space, transforming into a supernova that during its brief lifetime will shine brighter than billions of stars combined (ScienceDaily.com, 2010)

Recently I have been listening to Sirius Radio, thanks to my dad for loaning me his fancy truck for a month, and have twice listened to Deepak Chopra’s channel.  At first I thought, man, I don’t know if I can listen to this guy, he’s so monotone… but then I realized how awesome the topic was and couldn’t stop listening let alone stop thinking about it since. Two times I turned on the station and both times was the same professor talking about Quantum Mechanics and how it relates to our physical and spiritual/emotional bodies in the universe.  Without bending your brain too much, he mentioned the phenomenon, “spooky action at a distance” which Einstein originally introduced, he came across this spooky phenomenon when studying the action of two molecules of the same entity, the interesting thing about it was that no matter the distance these two molecules were pulled apart, whatever actions one expressed in one place, the other did the exact same (but opposite; meaning they spin in different directions, one left & one right) at a distance.  Simultaneous action and reaction without direct contact!  So what is it that connects the two and delivers the call to action?  To the naked eye, there is no connection, no communication… there isn’t even a variable of time during which to illicit a response.  This idea brings to question a whole plethora of ideas, going against basically everything science can directly explain, which is in a sense mind-blowing!  Still there is no explanation for this phenomenon, but there right in front of our (these quantum mechanic’s) eyes, the molecules are acting and reacting, every time as if they are of the same ‘mind’.  The reason it is so interesting to me is because I am studying the enigmatic medicine of Acupuncture.  Currently there are researchers studying in great detail the mechanisms by which acupuncture works, but have yet to pin point an exact action.  There are theories, for example, the fascia theory: in short, this is the idea that every cell in our body is connected by fascial membranes (connective tissue) and we can access certain pathways (meridians) through the use of needles; affecting different parts of the whole body through the use of specific acupuncture points.

Even though we don’t understand the exact mechanism of Acupuncture, or why one molecule of a cell in one place will simultaneously affect another miles away without contact or means of communication (at least as far as we can perceive); this doesn’t change the fact that it is indeed happening or affecting the body and our own cells on a level that we just can not understand (at least presently). 

On this same note, I recently just watched a great TED talk in my Pathology class about a woman, Jill Bolte Taylor who had a Hemorrhagic Stroke in her left temporal lobe and lived to talk about her experience.  It is a remarkable video and leaves you emotional and inspired to make a difference in your attitude and your relationship with humanity.  Talk about ’spooky action’!  She has an experience wherein the left hemisphere of her brain is completely shut off.  Her ability to communicate and use her physical body shuts down little by little yet she remains conscious the entire time, perceiving a reality that is unbeknownst to you and me.  I know, it sounds crazy right… but don’t take my word for it, listen to her story & I guarantee it will change your perception of reality, or at least leave you in wonderment! 

Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight  TEDtalks.com

Chinese Medicine is largely based on the idea that we are a part of nature, and we change as nature does.  We are made up of the same particles as the atmosphere and the earth around us, nitrogen, oxygen, water, iron, etc.  I just recently attended a talk by an Astrologist who is currently writing a book on Chinese Medicine and Astrology.  She’s spent a lot of time researching Astrology, Astronomy and has been studying a bit with a well renown Acupuncturist here in Portland.  One bit of information that goes along with my topic for the day was a discussion on the death of a Supernova; “when a star dies and explodes in an extraordinary fashion” (ScienceDaily.com, 2010).  In  january of 2008, astronomers caught a glimpse of this, the first ever witnessed event.  You can read the article here.  What really caught my attention was not the actual event itself (though that in itself is quite amazing), it was the realization of the event as an action/reaction of the whole universe.  It’s easy to think a star died, it blew up and there are a million other stars out there to take its place, and that’s it, but it is so much more than that.  Those stars are made up of gasses and different compounds, like our own atmosphere and bodies.  When a star is about to die, it essentially has burned up all its gasses except for its iron core (which can not burn anymore).  So, the star explodes into little bits into the universe and all those different elements are spewed out into the rest of space and made into something else, some new combination of elements and gaseous compounds.  Yes, somewhere along the way, all these little bits are made into a part of ourselves, so one could say, we are in essence, pieces put together by the stars… the iron in our blood, the nitrogen, the hydrogen… (crazy isn’t it!) 

Till next time…

~be well~

Erin

Sources: 

Graham, Nicholas. (2008, May 21). Stars supernova death witnessed by scientists. The Huffington Post, Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/21/stars-supernova-death-wit_n_102959.html

Institute of Physics (2009, March 4). ‘Spooky Action At A Distance’ Of Quantum Mechanics Directly Observed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 12, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090304091231.htm

Taylor, J.B. (Speaker). (2008). Jill bolte taylor’s stroke of insight. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

We don’t yet know why or how quantum entanglement happens. It’s also not clear why we don’t seem to see the effects on the everyday scale of the universe we can directly observe. But entanglement is a solid, proven, never-failing fact. Until recently, however, it’s only been seen in things like the spin of electrons, or the polarisation of photons.

A few years ago the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Austria did some tests – now being published in Nature – that demonstrate entanglement at the atomic level. This is a step up the mechanical chain, a level closer – though still pretty far from – the apparently classical world we’re familiar with.

I think it’ll be really interesting to discover at what point on the subatomic-to-breadbox scale that these quantum entanglement effects disappear (if they really do at all).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/science/03teleportation.html?_r=1&ref=science

Quantum teleportation rests on the ability for quantum particles to become “entangled”. The basic idea here is that the state of a system of quantum particles does not always break down neatly into a sum of states of the individual particles. The total state is “bigger” than the sum of the parts.

This “not the sum of its parts” business is evident from some of the simplest quantum experiments one can do. The famous double-slit experiment rests on the fact that if you fire a beam of electrons at a screen that has two slits cut out of it (a very short distance apart from one another), then after the beam hits the slit, each particle in the beam is described by a wavefunction that involves two pieces:

(Psi_1 + Psi_2)/(sqrt(2))

where the first piece corresponds to passing through slit 1while the second piece corresponds to passing through slit 2

The probability distribution for a particle in the beam is the square of the above:

[(Psi_1)^2 + (Psi_2)^2 + 2 Psi_1 Psi_2]/2

The last term in the square-brackets would not come about if these electrons behaved like classical particles. There would simply be a 50% chance of the particles passing through slit 1 and 50% chance that they passed through slit 2. That last term has the effect of creating an interference pattern as the electrons hit some photographic plate beyond the double-slits.

Entanglement works on a similar principle, only now, rather than a single particle, a *single* wavefunction necessarily describes the state of the two particles. This wavefunction is set up in some way to ensure that some constraint is met–if the particles were photons that arose from the decay of a particle with zero angular momentum, then the total angular momentum for the photons is zero. This means that if you measure the spin of your photon, you know the spin of your friend’s photon.

The crazy thing is that by *measuring* the photon’s spin, you appear to have an influence on the spin of your friend’s photon. This influence appears to act instantaneously. This is what makes entanglement puzzling–it seems to go against Einstein’s special theory of relativity. In fact, it doesn’t because you cannot transmit the information you discover upon your measurement of the photon’s spin to your friend fast enough, and it is information transmission that matters. Still, as a professor I had once said: quantum theory obeys the letter of the law, but seems to certainly skirt close to breaking the spirit…

I guess quantum mechanics is still better than some in the financial industry…

In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect’s name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science.

Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn’t matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart. Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is doing.

The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein’s long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since travelling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect’s findings. But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations.

The Universe as a Hologram
by Michael Talbot

And Quantum Mechanics does allow for some very strange things to happen.This appears to be an experiment that has proven (in this case at least) the concept of Quantum Entanglement. From the link:

Testing a concept called “spooky action at a distance”–a phrase used by Einstein in criticizing the phenomenon–they have shown that two subatomic particles can communicate nearly instantaneously, even if they are separated by cosmic distances.

(In the experiment the two photons where 18km apart, not exactly cosmic distances, but we’ll forgive that bit of hyperbole). Of course the first thing I thought of when I read this was Star Trek style teleporters. Second thought (and probably more likely) was faster than light communication. Maybe that will sort out the problems with low bandwidth in South Africa.

So why did I chose the title that I did? Well at first glance this appears to be a possible technique by which some of the pseudoscientific Quantum machines (for e.g. Danie Krugel’s MOS) could work. Unfortunately the article also has this interesting little tit-bit:

Given Einstein’s standard speed limit on light traveling within conventional spacetime, the experiments show that entanglement might be controlled by something existing beyond it. (my bold)

Unconventional spacetime? That just sounds cool! Essentially what they are saying though is that the basic premise of Quantum Physics, that at subatomic levels weird things happen, is true. The article also agrees here:

Cosmologist Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena says that it’s “yet another experiment that tells us quantum mechanics is right” and that there “really is an intrinsic connection between entangled particles, not that some signal passes quickly between them when an observation is performed.” (my bold)

Exciting stuff. But please remember that (a) this only works on the quantum level and (b) that the photons were first “quantumly” entangled and then sent to points 18km apart. No way to get information about a particle if you did not at first have it.

In conclusion, yes Quantum Physics is really strange and Mysterious, but no, you can’t use it to improve the subtle energies in your business or find missing persons. (Not yet anyway :p)

(See below for links)

DNA homology recognition has been demonstrated between sequences of several hundred nucleotides. In the study, scientists monitored fluorescently-tagged DNA strands placed in water containing no proteins or other material that could interfere with the experiment. Strands with identical nucleotide sequences were about twice as likely to congregate than disimilar strands. The forces responsible for this apparent telepathic effect can operate across more than one nanometre of water.

Sato writes

This recognition effect may help increase the accuracy and efficiency of the homologous recombination of genes, which is a process responsible for DNA repair, evolution, and genetic diversity. The new findings may also shed light on ways to avoid recombination errors, which are factors in cancer, aging, and other health issues.

Astonishing. I’m very curious to see what subsequent research will suggest regarding the nature, consequences and theoretical implications of this effect.

Link to Daily Galaxy article: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/02/dna-found-to-ha.html

(Apologies for non-embedded link; my right-click button isn’t working on Internet Explorer… If anyone has any idea why this might be so, feel free to leave a comment)