The need to go Quantum ASAP!

Richard Feynman.
Image courtesy: brittanica.com 

There's plenty of room at the bottom.

-Richard Feynman

How often you hear the words "Quantum physics"? Certainly if you belong from STEM or if you keep yourself busy with Sci-Fi movies, it's then likely you have been introduced to this word many times. But why are we discussing it so much? What's the underlying purpose of diving deep into the subatomic world? In this article we will try to understand the basic timeline of quantum mechanics and its potential in the future.

It all started with 'that' man who was sleeping under an apple tree and saw an apple falling. Of course we are talking about Isaac Newton, however we will reserve the topic of theory of gravitation to some other post. Once Newton was wondering about the nature of light, and its form. Like every other thing around, he stated that "Light is made up of particles, and one may catch up with the light particles if he runs fast enough". This rather simple, straightforward assumption helped him earn some audience then but sparked a revolution in the field of physics which would ultimately lead to the developement of two famous theories; The Special theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. There were many people who came by, explaining their view of reality and answering the fundamental question about the nature of light. The physics community, even after the demise of Newton, swung back and forth between the wave and particle theory of light; again none of them were to be blamed because light indeed sometimes showed strange wave like behavior (interference and diffraction) and sometimes a particle like behavior (reflection and refraction). This question was finally answered by Albert Einstein with his paper on Photoelectric effect (which ultimately earned him the Nobel Prize). Light was then believed to obey what physicists call Wave-Particle duality. Light sometimes behaves like waves and sometimes like particles. By this time, there was no turning back! Quantum Mechanics took a huge leap from then onwards and particularly in the year 1923 Louis de Broglie published his hypothesis that not only light, but all other matter around us obeys the wave-particle duality. This was a huge milestone for the homo sapiens who were always so used to watching everyday objects composed of little particles rather than waves. Of course this drew some criticism, as all the theories face in the beginning. Later the midth and the late 20s saw a major breakthrough in this domain with Erwin Schrodinger coming up with his wave euqation, Pauli's exclusion principle taking up the centre stage, etc. Thus the theory went on and on with many discoveries coming from all around the world contributing to the field. Of course there were other countless geniuses along the road whoes contribution to the field is as important as any other person.

Dr. Nikolas Provatas uses computer modelling and simulations to understand how to design better materials and products from the atomic scale up.
Image credits: https://www.computecanada.ca/research/condensed-matter-physics/

This leaves us with the question where do we stand now? What is the application of Quantum Mechanics in our day to day life and where will it take us? Consider a world of no smartphones and internet, no high speed laptops, no sturdy materials for airplanes and spacecrafts, no WMDs (which would be good in fact!), no high end medication and technologically advanced healthcare system and of course, no understanding of beginning of universe; this would have been us if there was no one paying attention to the microscopic world down there. We are now so dependent on Quantum Physics that it's impossible to rewind back. In the vast ocean of doubts and questions, where we humans as explorers were barely floating, we can say that we have finally reached ashore an island of wisdom and knowledge. An island of promises and hope. With the recent advancements in Condensed Matter Physics(CMPS) and High Energy Physics(HEPS) we are now moving ahead with inventing new devices and bringing the best of Physics into the service of the planet. The upcoming field of Quantum Computation and Quantum Telecommunication is going to be the greatest revolution for mankind ever according to the experts. 

Continuing the analogy of the lost explorer, we did land ashore a beautiful island, but who knows how big is this island. Who knows what surprises and danger awaits us. Who knows how far can we drag ourselves on this mysterious islands and who knows what is on the other end... Only time will tell us.