22 May, 2017
Caitlin: Hey Bill. I’m currently a junior in high school and I’m getting ready to apply to college in the near future. I’ve always loved science but it’s never been a subject to come naturally to me and I’ve always struggled in it a little bit. Do you think that there’s a possibility I could pick science as my major and become hopefully a scientist one day in the future despite the fact that it doesn’t come naturally to me? Thank you very much.
Bill Nye: Caitlin, of course there’s a chance for you to become a scientist. What, are you kidding me? Of course, young woman, go for it! There’s all sorts of sciences that I bet will come naturally to you. Chemistry and physics may not be your thing, or maybe they’re your favorite. Statistics always made me crazy although I did it. So yes, there’s a science for you, you’re doggone right.
I would please consider pursuing as many science courses as you can handle. You don’t have to start with 400-level courses, you know, senior in college level courses, just try astronomy. Astronomy is empowering and wonderful. It’s humbling and empowering all at the same time. Try biology. The discoveries being made in genetics right now are amazing and will change the course of human history. Try chemistry. Without chemistry we would not have these textiles and this fabulous glass in these electronics that are enabling us to have this computer conversation. No, just go for it, of course!
The big thing I remind everybody though is algebra. Algebra is really important and it was hard for me too. You’ve just got to practice. You’ve got to practice algebra over and over. And the reason it’s valuable, apparently, research suggests thinking abstractly about numbers enables you to think abstractly about all sorts of things.
So go back if you need to. If you’re a junior just do a little more algebra and I bet you’re more comfortable with the whole idea. And you might change the world. Go get 'em, Caitlin!
What do you do if you're a diehard science lover who dreams of one day donning a lab coat professionally, but you're struggling with the work at school? That is Caitlin's predicament—but that's not how Bill Nye sees it. Your school classes may not come naturally to you, but that's because science is a skill, not a talent. No one is born a scientist, it is something you become over time with hard work, and if perhaps biology isn't hitting home with you, you may find your groove in astronomy. Physics isn't for everyone, but chemistry might be your match. The point is, there is a kind of science for everyone. So to change the world as a scientist, here's what you have to do: #1. Don't give up before it's begun. #2. Study hard and get to college. #3. Practice science as a way of thinking (and algebra specifically) to develop abstract thinking skills. #4. Find the field in which you belong, and start to chip away at change. Bill Nye's most recent book is Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World.
Image source: carlos castilla/Shutterstock
- Quantum particles can tunnel through seemingly impassable barriers, popping up on the other side.
- Quantum tunneling is not a new discovery, but there's a lot that's unknown about it.
- By super-cooling rubidium particles, researchers use their spinning as a magnetic timer.
When it comes to weird behavior, there's nothing quite like the quantum world. On top of that world-class head scratcher entanglement, there's also quantum tunneling — the mysterious process in which particles somehow find their way through what should be impenetrable barriers.
Exactly why or even how quantum tunneling happens is unknown: Do particles just pop over to the other side instantaneously in the same way entangled particles interact? Or do they progressively tunnel through? Previous research has been conflicting.
That quantum tunneling occurs has not been a matter of debate since it was discovered in the 1920s. When IBM famously wrote their name on a nickel substrate using 35 xenon atoms, they used a scanning tunneling microscope to see what they were doing. And tunnel diodes are fast-switching semiconductors that derive their negative resistance from quantum tunneling.
Nonetheless, "Quantum tunneling is one of the most puzzling of quantum phenomena," says Aephraim Steinberg of the Quantum Information Science Program at Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in Toronto to Live Science. Speaking with Scientific American he explains, "It's as though the particle dug a tunnel under the hill and appeared on the other."
Steinberg is a co-author of a study just published in the journal Nature that presents a series of clever experiments that allowed researchers to measure the amount of time it takes tunneling particles to find their way through a barrier. "And it is fantastic that we're now able to actually study it in this way."
Frozen rubidium atoms
Image source: Viktoriia Debopre/Shutterstock/Big Think
One of the difficulties in ascertaining the time it takes for tunneling to occur is knowing precisely when it's begun and when it's finished. The authors of the new study solved this by devising a system based on particles' precession.
Subatomic particles all have magnetic qualities, and they spin, or "precess," like a top when they encounter an external magnetic field. With this in mind, the authors of the study decided to construct a barrier with a magnetic field, causing any particles passing through it to precess as they did so. They wouldn't precess before entering the field or after, so by observing and timing the duration of the particles' precession, the researchers could definitively identify the length of time it took them to tunnel through the barrier.
To construct their barrier, the scientists cooled about 8,000 rubidium atoms to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero. In this state, they form a Bose-Einstein condensate, AKA the fifth-known form of matter. When in this state, atoms slow down and can be clumped together rather than flying around independently at high speeds. (We've written before about a Bose-Einstein experiment in space.)
Using a laser, the researchers pusehd about 2,000 rubidium atoms together in a barrier about 1.3 micrometers thick, endowing it with a pseudo-magnetic field. Compared to a single rubidium atom, this is a very thick wall, comparable to a half a mile deep if you yourself were a foot thick.
With the wall prepared, a second laser nudged individual rubidium atoms toward it. Most of the atoms simply bounced off the barrier, but about 3% of them went right through as hoped. Precise measurement of their precession produced the result: It took them 0.61 milliseconds to get through.
Reactions to the study
Scientists not involved in the research find its results compelling.
"This is a beautiful experiment," according to Igor Litvinyuk of Griffith University in Australia. "Just to do it is a heroic effort." Drew Alton of Augustana University, in South Dakota tells Live Science, "The experiment is a breathtaking technical achievement."
What makes the researchers' results so exceptional is their unambiguity. Says Chad Orzel at Union College in New York, "Their experiment is ingeniously constructed to make it difficult to interpret as anything other than what they say." He calls the research, "one of the best examples you'll see of a thought experiment made real." Litvinyuk agrees: "I see no holes in this."
As for the researchers themselves, enhancements to their experimental apparatus are underway to help them learn more. "We're working on a new measurement where we make the barrier thicker," Steinberg said. In addition, there's also the interesting question of whether or not that 0.61-millisecond trip occurs at a steady rate: "It will be very interesting to see if the atoms' speed is constant or not."
