Tardigrades are tiny organisms that can survive extreme environments including being chilled to near absolute zero. At these temperatures quantum effects such as entanglement become dominant, so perhaps it is not surprising that a team of physicists has used a chilled tardigrade to create an entangled qubit.
According to a preprint on the arXiv server, the team cooled a tardigrade to below 10 mK and then used it as the dielectric in a capacitor that itself was part of a superconducting transmon qubit. The team says that it then entangled the qubit – tardigrade and all – with another superconducting qubit. The team then warmed up the tardigrade and brought it back to life.
To me, the big question is whether the tardigrade was alive when it was entangled. My curiosity harks back to the now outdated idea that living organisms are “too warm and wet” to partake in quantum processes. Today, scientists believe that some biological processes such as magnetic navigation and perhaps even photosynthesis rely on quantum effects such as entanglement. So perhaps it is possible that the creature was alive and entangled at the same time.
In the preprint, the researchers say that the entangled tardigrade was in a latent state of life called cryptobiosis. They say they have shown that it is “possible to do a quantum and hence a chemical study of a system, without destroying its ability to function biologically”.
Extreme record
And if that is not impressive enough, the team has set a record for the extreme conditions a complex form of life can survive. The tardigrade spent 420 hours at temperatures below 10 mK and pressures of 6×10−6 mbar and managed to survive
Tardigrades are much more resilient than humans when it comes to exposure to ionizing radiation. So they can ignore a recent announcement from the Netherlands Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS) warning people against wearing several items that are claimed to “protect” from the microwave radiation used by 5G networks. It turns out that some anti-5G pendants, necklaces, bracelets and sleeping masks sold in the Netherlands emit levels of ionizing radiation that could be harmful if the items are worn next to the skin for long periods of time. One of the items is designed for children.
As well as not wearing the items, the ANVS is advising people to store them in their original packaging and keep them in a closed cabinet. “Do not throw the products away with your household waste,” says the agency, adding that the items “contain radioactive materials or waste”. The agency is currently working on a plan to collect and dispose of the material.
