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+--- Thread: QM entanglement is inevitable + Algorithm beats chemists at their own game (/thread-4104.html)
QM entanglement is inevitable + Algorithm beats chemists at their own game - C C - Aug 27, 2017
Scientists Finally Prove Strange Quantum Physics Idea Einstein Hated
http://gizmodo.com/scientists-finally-prove-strange-quantum-physics-idea-e-1798433666
EXCERPT: [...] Richens’ team’s new paper, published yesterday in Physical Review Letters, doesn’t observe entanglement. Instead, “the main contribution of this work is to provide a compelling argument that entanglement—one of the most interesting and counterintuitive aspects of quantum theory—is an inescapable feature of any physical theory more “fundamental” than classical physics,” Ciarán Lee, a researcher at University College London not involved in this paper told Gizmodo. “By “fundamental” here I mean that such a physical theory contains classical physics in some limit.” Any theory that’s backward-compatible with classical physics, the way Xbox 360s are backward-compatible to Xboxes, requires entanglement.
The team’s esoteric proof requires lots of very high-level math, but Richens gave a simplified example using classical and quantum computer bits, or qubits. You can correlate two regular computer bits (things that can only assume values of zero and one) with a simple operation: If the first bit equals zero, make the second bit the opposite value. If the first bit equals one, leave the second bit alone.
But what if you applied this operation to quantum bits? Rather than just being a zero or one like a regular bit, a qubit comes with a probability of being either zero or one until you measure it. Richens explained that if the above operation were to work on a pair of qubits, then entanglement rears its ugly head in the proof. Their paper found that “spooky action at a distance” is inevitable....
Algorithm modelled on Google’s AlphaGo beats chemists at their own game
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/algorithm-modelled-on-googles-alphago-beats-chemists-at-their-own-game/3007895.article
EXCERPT: Planning how to make a molecule is often a difficult process requiring great skill, patience and an equally adept memory. But now a new computer program can sift through millions of chemical reactions to plan a synthesis in a matter of seconds. Chemists often map out a series of complex chemical reactions under a variety of experimental conditions to make a molecule. Such planning involves plenty of trial and error, with countless hours spent consulting the literature before the synthesis is even attempted. But chemists are now seeking to ease this process with automated synthesis-planning software....
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