Ask Ethan: What’s the real science behind Google’s time crystal?
Is it really an otherworldly revolution, leveraging quantum computing, that will change physics forever?
It’s tempting, whenever a new discovery comes along, to imagine a whole slew of revolutions that might soon ensue. After all, anytime you can suddenly do or accomplish any task that was previously impractical or even (thought to be) impossible, that’s one fewer obstacle standing in the way of even your loftiest, pie-in-the-sky dreams. However, no matter what discoveries ensue, the fundamental laws of physics that underlie reality must always be obeyed; you might be able to cajole nature into doing a lot of clever things, but you can’t very well break the rules that govern it. If you could, we’d have to write down new laws, because the old ones would no longer be valid. Despite all the tricks we’ve developed, we cannot create fundamental magnetic monopoles, violate the conservation of momentum or energy, or work our way around the second law of thermodynamics.
Yet a recent article, touting a brand new discovery involving time crystals and Google’s quantum computer, claims to do just that: evade the second law of thermodynamics. Is that even right? Patreon supporter Chad Marler wants to know, asking:
