Quantum Enganglement, Quantum Biology, and a Hunch About the Human Condition
What is quantum entanglement? Nobody this side of Heaven really knows. In one of his more memorable quotes, Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance". For those who are unfamiliar with quantum entanglement, it was first theorized by Einstein and two other scientists, and the term 'entanglement' was first coined by Erwin Schrödinger in his famous "Schrödinger's cat" thought experiment.
What quantum entanglement means, to greatly simplify the matter, is that if two particles are entangled, if you observe the state of one particle, then the other particle will be in the same state... except that as soon as one particle is observed in any way, the other particle is automatically disentangled and is forced to take on its own state. If that makes no sense to you, well, you're not alone. Physicists can describe what is happening, but none know why it is happening.
I first began reading up on quantum entanglement for a short story I was writing about four years ago... and I found out that research had by then shown that not only quantum particles could be entangled, but such entanglement could be found between complex particles such as atoms and even molecules at significant distances... and apparently, even across discrete periods of time.
I realized then that if complex molecules - which can be a billion times or more larger than elementary particles like quarks - can be entangled in the same manner as quarks then there should be no reason that entanglement would not affect our very bodies, and even be seen or felt by our consciousnesses!
For instance, we've all heard of "sympathy pains", which are called "Couvade syndrome" by the scientific community. Symptoms experienced by the partner can include:
stomach pain, indigestion, changes in appetite, weight gain, diarrhea, constipation, headache, toothache, cravings, nausea, breast augmentation, hardening of the nipple and insomnia. In some extreme cases, fathers can grow a belly similar to a 7-month pregnant woman and gain approximately 25 to 30 pounds.
Could this be an example of entanglement on the macro level? Perhaps, but that's not the only possible example. We've probably all heard of instances where a woman suddenly 'knew' when something bad happened to her child or her husband, or of identical twins who were raised apart but led almost identical lives. Just today came the news of two identical 92 year-old twins who died within hours of each other...both by heart failure. Read More
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