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Quantum physicists have a novel plan for an experiment that uses the human eye to detect "spooky action at a distance"
The mysterious phenomenon known as quantum entanglement—where objects seemingly communicate at speeds faster than light to instantaneously influence one another, regardless of their distance apart—was famously dismissed by Einstein as "spooky action at a distance." New experiments could soon answer skeptics by enabling people to see entangled pulses of light with the naked eye.
Photons make up light—and the fact that scientists regularly entangle these tiny packets of energy raised the possibility that humans might actually be able to observe this effect. Now experiments to shoot entangled photons at the human eye are under development, and should take place later this year. "It's fascinating that entanglement is something we could see with the naked eye—it brings us closer to this strange quantum phenomenon," notes researcher Nicolas Gisin, a quantum physicist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
Entanglement is measured by creating entangled particles, sending them to different detectors, and seeing how quickly a measurement on one influences the other. The idea for this experiment is simply to replace the photon detectors with human vision. Human retinas are surprisingly sensitive, capable of being triggered by roughly seven photons. And although they only have an efficiency of about 7 percent (of every 100 photons that enter the pupil, only about seven go on to reach the retina) they have a dark count of virtually zero, meaning they generate few if any false positives.
"The eye can actually detect single photons, but the signals that light sends to the brain are suppressed unless there are about seven—otherwise you would see flashes of light all the time—even in complete darkness," explains quantum physicist Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Entanglement is measured by creating entangled particles, sending them to different detectors, and seeing how quickly a measurement on one influences the other. The idea for this experiment is simply to replace the photon detectors with human vision. Human retinas are surprisingly sensitive, capable of being triggered by roughly seven photons. And although they only have an efficiency of about 7 percent (of every 100 photons that enter the pupil, only about seven go on to reach the retina) they have a dark count of virtually zero, meaning they generate few if any false positives.
"The eye can actually detect single photons, but the signals that light sends to the brain are suppressed unless there are about seven—otherwise you would see flashes of light all the time—even in complete darkness," explains quantum physicist Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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