Frozen Tardigrade Discovered As World's First-Ever Animal to Enter Quantum State

Tardigrades or moss piglets are microscopic plump-bodied animals that have been put through the wringer in the name of science numerous times. Amazingly it is also the most durable animal in existence and can thrive on virtually any surface, any condition, and even in space. These unique animals have been shot out of a gun, boiled in hot water, exposed to intense UV radiation, and even landed on the moon to test the limits of their "tun" state- a survival mechanism that makes tardigrades curl up, shrink, and become dehydrated balls suspending their biological functions in the face of extreme adversity.

Experiment Places Frozen Tardigrades in Quantum State to Tests its Biological Tenacity

Today, researchers have exposed the moss piglets to the coldest temperatures at higher pressures to see if the microscopic animal survive. Not only was this to test their biological limits but also to see if frozen tardigrades could be incorporated into quantum entangled eclectic circuits and later revived to the animal's normal active state.

The results of the experiment reported in the preprint database arXiv, titled "Entanglement between superconducting qubits and a tardigrade," suggest that the experiment was a success. Scientists may add "temporary quantum entanglement" to the growing list of accomplishments of the microscopic moss piglets. However, responses to the paper have had issues with the finding.

If the recent findings withstand peer review, they will represent the world's first-ever living animal to be quantum entangled.

Quantum entanglement, according to ScienceDaily, is a quantum mechanical phenomenon wherein two or more objects are reduced to the smallest size and are referenced to each other despite being spatially separated. In short, this is when an object is confined in subatomic particles.

Quantum Entanglement and Subatomic Realms

Quantum entanglement is a strange phenomenon that even Albert Einstein doubted its existence. Essentially, the effects occur when two tiny subatomic particles become bound to one another that it changes one of the particle's spins or momentum and changes the other particle in the same way even when large distances separate both particles.

The effects might be able to transcend the subatomic realm, according to a paper published in 2018 where a team of researchers found that specific photosynthetic bacteria are capable of quantum entanglement with light photons when the resonant frequency of light is mirrored in a room that eventually synchronizes with the frequency of electrons in the bacteria's photosynthetic molecules.

The authors of the recent preprint study decided to test whether multicellular organisms-the tardigrades could develop the same relationship. In the experiment, the team collected three tardigrades from roof gutters in Denmark. During their animated stage, they measured roughly 0.008-0.018 inches. When they were sent to a 'tun' state, the moss piglet shrunk by6 a third of their size reports LiveScience.

From there, the tardigrades were frozen and cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero and placed the now frozen moss piglets between 2 capacitor plates of superconducting circuits forming a quantum bit.

Check out more news and information on Quantum Physics in Science Times.