Bench Press

A recent publication (requires access; discussed at a high level here) in Nature actually demonstrates quantum effects on a “large” object (still only 30 micrometers, but much larger than the single/handful of particles where it’s been demonstrated previously). Scientists were literally able to make a paddle simultaneously vibrate and not vibrate! This modern day Schrödinger’s Cat inspired me to look for something nerdy to commemorate this.

Behold: take Hello Kitty, and mix it with a little Schrödinger’s Cat, and put it on a shirt, and you get “Hello Schroddy”:

Interestingly, the shirt also comes with printable explanation cards so that you don’t have to explain it to the quantum-ly-challenged:

Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment. In quantum physics, a subatomic particle can exist in multiple states at once (imagine coming to a fork in the road and going both left and right). All of these possibilities combined is a thing called quantum superposition. When the particle is observed, however, it collapses into a single state, giving us the option of left or right not some of both left and right at the same time. To explain how difficult it is to conceive of this indeterminacy at a non-subatomic level, Schrödinger described a hypothetical experiment involving a cat. He puts the cat in an opaque box so that the cat cannot be observed. Also in the box is a flask of poisonous gas and a radioactive substance. The radioactive substance controls the flask so that when an atom decays, the gas is released. At any given moment, then, from outside the box, the cat is in a state of indeterminacy. From a theoretical perspective, it’s both alive and dead at the same time… until we open the box.

No actual cats were harmed in this experiment. Many theoretical physicists, however, were.

Now, who’s the lucky lady who’s going to receive one of these from you, huh?

(ThinkGeek link; comes in pink in many sizes, $18.99)

Paper: O’Connell, A. D., et al. “Quantum ground state and single-phonon control of a mechanical resonator.” Nature. Mar 17 2010. DOI: 10.1038/nature08967

CO₂ + 2 H₂O + light –> (CH₂O)_n + H₂O + O₂

The equation above was the first thing I ever learned about photosynthesis. A simple equation that stated that the input of water, carbon dioxide, and light would allow a plant to produce sugar, water, and oxygen. The equation is just a simple overview of the impressive chain of events that take place within each cell of a plant undergoing photosynthesis. While scientists have studied and admired photosynthesis in great detail; producing a cost-effective artificial system for harnessing light for energy has proven to be a difficult proposition.

Today, much of the research being done focuses on finding ways to improve efficiency of solar cells thereby making them more cost effective. Some research is even being done to produce artificial “trees” that contain solar cells in the leaves as well as piezoelectric elements to harness kinetic energy from the wind and rain. While all these different approaches are promising and are obviously photosynthesis inspired none of them truly imitate the basic chemical reaction that is the crux of photosynthesis. That’s why I was really impressed when I read about researchers, at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who’ve discovered nanocrystals of cobalt oxide are capable of splitting water with only the application of visible light.

An excerpt from Physorg.com’s article:

Green plants perform the photooxidation of water molecules within a complex of proteins called Photosystem II, in which manganese-containing enzymes serve as the catalyst. Manganese-based organometallic complexes modeled off Photosystem II have shown some promise as photocatalysts for water oxidation but some suffer from being water insoluble and none are very robust. In looking for purely inorganic catalysts that would dissolve in water and would be far more robust than biomimetic materials, Frei and Jiao turned to cobalt oxide, a highly abundant material that is an an important industrial catalyst. When Frei and Jiao tested micron-sized particles of cobalt oxide, they found the particles were inefficient and not nearly fast enough to serve as photocatalysts. However, when they nano-sized the particles it was another story.

“The yield for clusters of cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) nano-sized crystals was about 1,600 times higher than for micron-sized particles,” said Frei, “and the turnover frequency (speed) was about 1,140 oxygen molecules per second per cluster, which is commensurate with solar flux at ground level (approximately 1,000 Watts per square meter).”

Frei and Jiao hope to tie this breakthrough into a liquid fuel producing system that’s renewable and scrubs the atmosphere of CO₂ in the process. With their work on cobalt oxide they’ve made an important first step in producing a viable artificial photosynthetic system. I sure hope nature’s ok with us taking a page from her playbook.

(Image Credit – Simple Photosynthesis , Image Credit – Aritifical photosynthesis concept , Complete Physorg.com article)

*edited the photosynthesis formula meant to use the general one, but instead I used some wack combination of the two.