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tl;dr they've shown quantum entanglement can occur inside nerve fibers, and speculate that it could explain the speed of brain communication a research group i

tl;dr they've shown quantum entanglement can occur inside nerve fibers, and speculate that it could explain the speed of brain communication a research group in China has shown that many entangled photons can be generated inside the myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers. It could explain the rapid communication between neurons, which so far has been thought to be below the speed of sound, too slow to explain how the neural synchronization occurs. "If the power of evolution was looking for handy action over a distance, quantum entanglement would be [an] ideal candidate for this role," said Yong-Cong Chen in a statement to Phys.org. Chen is a professor at the Shanghai Center for Quantitative Life Sciences and Physics Department at Shanghai University. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review E. https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2401.11682 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2401.11682

bmenrigh 2y ago
I don’t get the “action at a distance” leading to synchronization. Quantum entanglement doesn’t transmit information. Is there some mechanism for synchronization without information transfer?
- croemer 2y ago
  I also don't get it. I'm surprised this made it through review with this title and abstract. They should have left the speculation about consciousness out of it.
- fsckboy 2y ago
  I did a quick google for explanations: https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement-a-physicist-explains-the-science-of-einsteins-spooky-action-at-a-distance-191927 https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement-a-p... In the simplest terms, quantum entanglement means that aspects of one particle of an entangled pair depend on aspects of the other particle, no matter how far apart they are or what lies between them. These particles could be, for example, electrons or photons, and an aspect could be the state it is in, such as whether it is “spinning” in one direction or another. The strange part of quantum entanglement is that when you measure something about one particle in an entangled pair, you immediately know something about the other particle, even if they are millions of light years apart. This odd connection between the two particles is instantaneous, seemingly breaking a fundamental law of the universe. Albert Einstein famously called the phenomenon “spooky action at a distance.” https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2022/10/popular-physicsprize2022-3.pdf https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2022/10/popular-physicspr... Interesting things happen if the particles in an entangled pair travel in opposite directions and one of them then meets a third particle in such a manner that they become entangled. They then enter a new shared state. The third particle loses its identity, but its original properties have now been transferred to the solo particle from the original pair. This way of transferring an unknown quantum state from one particle to another is called quantum teleportation. Remarkably, quantum teleportation is the only way to transfer quantum information from one system to another without losing any part of it. It is absolutely impossible to measure all the properties of a quantum system and then send the information to a recipient who wants to reconstruct the system...However, entirely unknown quantum properties can be transferred using quantum teleportation and appear intact in another particle, but at the price of them being destroyed in the original particle. Once this had been shown experimentally, the next step was to use two pairs of entangled particles. If one particle from each pair are brought together in a particular way, the undisturbed particles in each pair can become entangled despite never having been in contact with each other. This entanglement swapping was first demonstrated in 1998 by Anton Zeilinger’s research group. Entangled pairs of photons, particles of light, can be sent in opposite directions through optical fibres and function as signals in a quantum network. Entanglement between two pairs makes it possible to extend the distances between the nodes in such a network.
- cfgauss2718 2y ago
  We know from the No Communication theorem that quantum entanglement does not transmit information between classical observers who have no role in preparing the initial state of the entangled elements. Why should one think that this No Communication theorem is applicable to the phenomenological description of brain behavior? It seems that the speed of nerve conduction is at odds with the time constants of brain synchronization. If we are to doubt that quantum entanglement plays a role in accounting for this discrepancy, then what are the assumptions that underlie this doubt, and are they reasonable?
dekhn 2y ago
They didn't "show" anything; that would require scientific evidence (in the form of an experiment).
- Animats 2y ago
  Right. It's plausible mathematics, not an experimental result. That's reasonable research, but the title and conclusions overreach.
  - croemer 2y ago
    Peer reviewers were asleep at the wheel apparently. I'd expect better from Physical Review

bmenrigh 2y ago

I don’t get the “action at a distance” leading to synchronization. Quantum entanglement doesn’t transmit information. Is there some mechanism for synchronization without information transfer?

croemer 2y ago
I also don't get it. I'm surprised this made it through review with this title and abstract. They should have left the speculation about consciousness out of it.
fsckboy 2y ago
I did a quick google for explanations: https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement-a-physicist-explains-the-science-of-einsteins-spooky-action-at-a-distance-191927 https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement-a-p... In the simplest terms, quantum entanglement means that aspects of one particle of an entangled pair depend on aspects of the other particle, no matter how far apart they are or what lies between them. These particles could be, for example, electrons or photons, and an aspect could be the state it is in, such as whether it is “spinning” in one direction or another. The strange part of quantum entanglement is that when you measure something about one particle in an entangled pair, you immediately know something about the other particle, even if they are millions of light years apart. This odd connection between the two particles is instantaneous, seemingly breaking a fundamental law of the universe. Albert Einstein famously called the phenomenon “spooky action at a distance.” https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2022/10/popular-physicsprize2022-3.pdf https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2022/10/popular-physicspr... Interesting things happen if the particles in an entangled pair travel in opposite directions and one of them then meets a third particle in such a manner that they become entangled. They then enter a new shared state. The third particle loses its identity, but its original properties have now been transferred to the solo particle from the original pair. This way of transferring an unknown quantum state from one particle to another is called quantum teleportation. Remarkably, quantum teleportation is the only way to transfer quantum information from one system to another without losing any part of it. It is absolutely impossible to measure all the properties of a quantum system and then send the information to a recipient who wants to reconstruct the system...However, entirely unknown quantum properties can be transferred using quantum teleportation and appear intact in another particle, but at the price of them being destroyed in the original particle. Once this had been shown experimentally, the next step was to use two pairs of entangled particles. If one particle from each pair are brought together in a particular way, the undisturbed particles in each pair can become entangled despite never having been in contact with each other. This entanglement swapping was first demonstrated in 1998 by Anton Zeilinger’s research group. Entangled pairs of photons, particles of light, can be sent in opposite directions through optical fibres and function as signals in a quantum network. Entanglement between two pairs makes it possible to extend the distances between the nodes in such a network.
cfgauss2718 2y ago
We know from the No Communication theorem that quantum entanglement does not transmit information between classical observers who have no role in preparing the initial state of the entangled elements. Why should one think that this No Communication theorem is applicable to the phenomenological description of brain behavior? It seems that the speed of nerve conduction is at odds with the time constants of brain synchronization. If we are to doubt that quantum entanglement plays a role in accounting for this discrepancy, then what are the assumptions that underlie this doubt, and are they reasonable?

dekhn 2y ago

They didn't "show" anything; that would require scientific evidence (in the form of an experiment).

Animats 2y ago
Right. It's plausible mathematics, not an experimental result. That's reasonable research, but the title and conclusions overreach.
- croemer 2y ago
  Peer reviewers were asleep at the wheel apparently. I'd expect better from Physical Review