The tardigrade, it seemed, had added another notch to its belt.
Had the animal really been quantum entangled?
As physicists began to weigh in online, the answer became a little messier.
Consensus seemed to, quite quickly, snuff out the idea of tardigrade ‘tanglement.
Let’s give a shot to explain.
The vacuum of space?
Easy mode for tardigrades.
Tun tardigrades look pretty much dead… but they aren’t.
It’s a place where our understanding of physics begins to break down.
They left the other qubit (A) tardigrade-free.
Placing the tardigrade on top of qubit B, the researchers say, shifted its frequency down.
This, they suggest, is evidence of entanglement.
Or not?
Other physicists aren’t as confident about the tardigrade’s journey to the quantum world.
Natelson documented his thoughts ina short blog post.
“This is not ‘quantum biology’,” he suggested.
This is where scientists and science communicators need to proceed with caution.
“We are extremely fascinated by the tardigrade itself,” notes Dumke.
“This is an extraordinary lifeform that can survive absurd conditions.”
Operating quantum systems requires ultra-cold temperatures, barely above absolute zero (minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit).
The team reasons this shows metabolic processes are completely stopped in tun state tardigrades.
At such low temperatures, chemical reactions become impossible.
The tardigrade is essentially frozen in time: Its internal biology has stopped.
While the quantum entanglement headlines are exciting, they are, unfortunately, misleading.
