Scientists just cooked up something called a time crystal, and it's blowing minds everywhere! Basically, it's this funky new form of matter that moves and repeats in time, not space. This mind-bending creation challenges everything we thought we knew about the laws of physics. Picture a crystal that doesn't just sit there looking pretty, but actually jiggles around in time like it's got places to be. It's like something straight out of a sci-fi flick, but it's real, and it's totally rocking the scientific community. Who knows what kind of mind-blowing discoveries this time crystal will lead to next? Credit:
FrankStockholm: photograph by Betsy Devine (User:Betsythedevine), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FrankStockholm2004.jpg
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/:
Crystal: Paris Mutter, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/crystal-d26b248286a34a32b1c8833233d20f09#download
Fortnite: that kid, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/fortnite-time-machine-d05cc4cf8db343e0b0e5b102ba77706c
Halite: rocksandminerals, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/halite-46d99d0ec7444391983789ea8ce4d5b0
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
FrankStockholm: photograph by Betsy Devine (User:Betsythedevine), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FrankStockholm2004.jpg
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/:
Crystal: Paris Mutter, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/crystal-d26b248286a34a32b1c8833233d20f09#download
Fortnite: that kid, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/fortnite-time-machine-d05cc4cf8db343e0b0e5b102ba77706c
Halite: rocksandminerals, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/halite-46d99d0ec7444391983789ea8ce4d5b0
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Recently, scientists have created the first time crystal.
00:04It sounds like something straight out of science fiction, doesn't it?
00:08As if it's some kind of mysterious component for a time machine.
00:12But this isn't quite true.
00:14In reality, time crystals are more like a perpetual motion machine.
00:19But what exactly are they?
00:21And how do they work?
00:22Let's find out.
00:24First, let's talk about crystals in general.
00:28Take a regular crystal and examine it under a microscope.
00:31You'll see that it, like everything around us, consists of molecules and atoms.
00:37What makes them special is that their atoms are arranged in a repeating pattern.
00:43For example, let's take a salt crystal.
00:46If we look at it under a microscope, we'll see a repeating pattern inside it.
00:51And this pattern is the same everywhere, no matter how small or large the piece of salt
00:56is or what shape it is.
00:59In the whole crystal, the pattern will be unchanged.
01:02And it will always remain like this, no matter how much time has passed.
01:07The salt crystal will still have the same repeating pattern of atoms tomorrow, next
01:11week, or even next year.
01:14Now let's move on to time crystals.
01:17They're just like regular ones, but with a twist.
01:22You probably know that all atoms around us are constantly moving, even at very, very
01:27low temperatures, when everything freezes and nothing can stop them.
01:31Also, their movement is random, chaotic, and unpredictable, just kind of jiggling in space.
01:38However, in time crystals, everything is different.
01:42Not only are their atoms arranged in a repeating pattern, just like in regular crystals, but
01:48they also move in a looped, endlessly repeating dance.
01:53Now that's weird.
01:54The atoms in time crystals are like an endless, looped dance party, while the guests repeat
02:00the same moves in the same order over and over again.
02:05This dance, or repeating pattern, can be completely different.
02:09The movements can be basic and simple, or very complex and chaotic.
02:14But they have to be looped.
02:16Hence the name.
02:18Regular crystals repeat themselves endlessly in space, and time crystals repeat themselves
02:23in both space and time.
02:27Now just to clarify, these crystals aren't the kind we're used to.
02:32They don't look like diamonds, or emeralds, or anything like that.
02:36To be honest, they don't look like much at all.
02:39The beautiful name, time crystal, describes a new, strange kind of matter that changes
02:44in quantum states over a period of time.
02:47Basically, it's just the dance movements of atoms.
02:53So unfortunately, you can't just put one on your shelf to jiggle there.
02:57It's not a beautiful piece of quartz.
02:59It's more like a curiosity in physics.
03:04But that doesn't mean that these crystals aren't cool.
03:06Actually, there's something very unusual and interesting about them.
03:12You see, the movements we talked about persist even at absolute zero temperature.
03:18That is, even when in normal materials and objects, atoms would freeze, lose energy,
03:24and stop moving.
03:25In time crystals, they continue their endless dance, as if nothing happened.
03:31Oh, and that's just the beginning.
03:34Scientists are also stunned because the existence of time crystals violates the second law of
03:39thermodynamics.
03:41This law states that over time, any system becomes random and disordered.
03:46A warm object will distribute its heat and become cold.
03:50A vase balancing on the edge of a table will fall one day, and so on.
03:56But time crystals are like, eh, we don't care about your thermo something something.
04:01Not only do they move constantly in the same pattern no matter what happens to them, but
04:06they also don't need any energy to do so.
04:10Even if they don't receive energy from anywhere, they don't stop dancing and don't become less
04:14structured or organized.
04:17Yep, we've created a beautiful, incomprehensible miracle of nature that violates the laws of
04:24physics.
04:25Isn't that impressive?
04:27But how is this even possible?
04:29And why?
04:30Does it mean that there's nothing that can stop these atoms?
04:34Most importantly, could it be a clue for the secrets of the perpetual motion machine?
04:40Well, it's quite complicated.
04:43Once again, quantum mechanics is blowing up scientists' brains, this time with another
04:49mystery, a unique and unusual behavior that we're still trying to understand.
04:55Since it's a relatively new area of research, we aren't yet sure exact work and how we can
05:00use them.
05:02By the way, how did we even discover these guys, and how were they created?
05:08Time crystals were first predicted to exist in 2012 by theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek.
05:15Not all physicists accepted the theory at the time.
05:18Many believed it was impossible to violate the second law of thermodynamics, but the
05:23universe doesn't really care what scientists think, and Frank Wilczek won a Nobel Prize
05:28for his work.
05:30However, it took a few more years for scientists to actually create and observe the first time
05:36crystals.
05:37It happened in 2016, when scientists from the University of Maryland managed to create
05:42one using ions of the rare earth metal ytterbium.
05:47Here's what they did.
05:48First, they took a regular crystal and really, really cooled down the atoms inside it to
05:53near absolute zero.
05:55As already mentioned, absolute zero is the temperature at which atoms stop moving.
06:01So far we don't know how to reach this temperature, but we can get very, very close to it.
06:06We can slow down the atoms so much that they almost stop.
06:11So they took all these atoms and made them move really slow.
06:15And then, they started shocking them with lasers.
06:18It made the atoms switch between different states over and over again, without absorbing
06:23any energy from the laser.
06:25You could say that the laser gave them a beat and made them dance by themselves without
06:30anyone's help.
06:32The result was the first ever time crystal.
06:36The Maryland scientists' experiment was a major breakthrough and showed that time crystals
06:41were a real observable phenomenon.
06:43It made quite a fuss in the scientific community and was a huge step forward in the strange
06:48world of quantum mechanics.
06:51Unfortunately, there was one problem.
06:54Such perpetual motion only truly exists forever in ideal time crystals.
06:59And since the time crystals in our experiments weren't ideal, they lasted only a few minutes
07:04before they melted and started behaving normally again.
07:08What does it mean?
07:10It means that so far, unfortunately, we can't create a perpetual motion machine.
07:15If we try to do something like that, time crystals will immediately melt.
07:22But this didn't stop the scientists, and in 2021, we finally made another breakthrough.
07:29Researchers at Google, in collaboration with physicists at Stanford, Princeton, and other
07:33universities used Google's quantum computer to much bigger and much more stable time crystal.
07:40You see, quantum computers are different from your typical laptop.
07:45They don't use regular bits and don't work with silicon.
07:49Instead, they work with quantum bits that can exist in multiple states at the same time.
07:55This allows the time crystals to keep oscillating in a repeating pattern, even when all other
08:00motion has stopped.
08:02All the previous crystals were short-lived, made a couple of flip-flops, and immediately
08:07melted.
08:08But now, scientists have created a crystal bigger and better than ever before.
08:14So what does this mean for us?
08:16Well, time crystals could hold the key to unlocking new technologies and a deeper understanding
08:22of the quantum world.
08:24For starters, they'll help us better explore the world of quantum mechanics.
08:28They challenge our understanding of time and the way that matter behaves.
08:33In classical physics, things are either static or they're moving in a predictable, repeating
08:38pattern.
08:39But time crystals don't care.
08:41They enjoy both static and moving at the same time.
08:47They can also help us create cool new technologies.
08:50They can bring us closer to creating full-fledged quantum computers.
08:54Engineers have struggled for years to create something that could serve as memory in quantum
08:59computers.
09:00And now they could use time crystals for that.
09:03Their repeating patterns of motion might be able to store information.
09:07Isn't that awesome?
09:10We'll also be able to create many other cool things with them.
09:13For example, we could use their repetitive behavior to create a new kind of ultra-precise
09:19clock.
09:21Time crystals are still a relatively new area of research.
09:25Right now, we're mostly trying to understand their unique properties and characteristics.
09:30Scientists are also performing experiments to study their behavior under different conditions.
09:35For example, in different temperatures and magnetic fields.
09:40In other words, this field of research is still in its early stages.
09:44But time crystals are a truly mind-boggling discovery that shows just how strange and
09:49wonderful the universe can be.
09:52They're already attracting a great deal of interest and attention from scientists around
09:56the world.
09:57I can't wait to see how many exciting and groundbreaking discoveries will come from
10:01this area in the future.
10:06That's it for today!
10:07So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
10:12friends.
10:13Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!