Scientists have identified the first ”Quantum Entangled” animal in history-frozen tardigrade, in a recent study.
About
• Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance.
• Scientists have placed a tardigrade in a state of quantum entanglement.
• In other words: the researchers managed to put a tardigrade in a state where it was directly connected to the qubits in such a way that anything that happens to the water bear or the qubits would simultaneously affect all three.
• What is the significance of this study? ➔ This study is perhaps the closest realization combining biological matter and quantum matter available with present-day technology. Moreover, this work is a new record for the conditions that a complex form of life can survive.
Tardigrades
• Tardigrades are also called water bears or moss piglets. They are near-microscopic multicellular organisms.
• They were discovered in 1773 by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze who dubbed them “little water bear.
• Tardigrades are found everywhere in terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments from the Arctic to the Antarctic, including great depths and altitudes.
• They are known to survive extreme conditions — such as exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation through a latent state of life known as cryptobiosis. Tardigrades have also survived exposure to outer space.
• Note: Cryptobiosis or anabiosis is a metabolic state of life entered by an organism in response to adverse environmental conditions such as desiccation, freezing, and oxygen deficiency.