Will I have to eat my words?

My personal frustration when it comes to pseudoscience is the issue of “The Quantum”. People seem to think that because they don’t understand what it means, that no-one understand what it means, and thus they can use it to explain any of the strange things that are going on.

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)

Danie Krugel fails again

Thanks to the top researchers here at Yet Another Sceptic’s Blog (thanx NyteShade :p) I was directed to the following newspaper article in the Herald. Here’s the interesting bit(s):

On Tuesday, Flanagan‘s wife, Heather, 68, called in the help of Danie Krugel of Bloemfontein who uses a machine he developed that helps him “triangulate” the position of missing people using their DNA. Although Krugel‘s machine indicated a certain area in which to look, this proved fruitless.

The hiker Ray Flanagan went missing last Wednesday on a hiking trip in the Outeniqua Mountains near George.

Once again, sadly, desperate people looked to Mr. Krugel for help in locating a missing loved one. And once again they were sadly disappointed. Mr. Krugel’s “revolutionary” technology is not looking that “revolutionary” anymore if I can’t do what he claims it can.

It is interesting to note that when Mr. Krugel organises a demonstration of his technology it invariably amazes the observers. More interestingly whenever he is called in to help find someone “in the real world” as it were, his success rate isn’t that great. I will let the reader draw his (or her) own conclusions.

Design Update

I’ve decided to change the design template used for the blog. My reasons basically involve being able to easierly access the different pages.

Please let me know what you think. (I personally quite like the change)