Recently, a news program exposed a case of cheating farmers. To the effect that some businesses claim that they can empower crop seeds through quantum technology, farmers can hand over the seeds to them and process them with so-called "high-tech quantum equipment", which can resist drought, waterlogging, lodging, diseases and pests, and can also increase production and income and improve crop growth rate.
See image for source
In the reporter's unannounced visit, the person in charge of the relevant company also took the trouble to introduce that different crop seeds need to be treated with different methods and frequencies. So does this so-called "quantum empowerment" technology really have the legendary effect?
See image for source
Let's talk about the conclusion first, within the scope of daily life, we see advertisements promoting products and services under the banner of "quantum", just ignore it, you will not miss any good things, you will only avoid a lot of pits.
Let's briefly talk about why things under the banner of "quantum XX" are unreliable (the quantum mechanics part below, if it is a bit difficult to read, you can skip it at speed and see the rumor analysis at the end).
Quantum mechanics, what exactly is studied?
Quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity are recognized as the two fundamental pillars of modern physics.
At first, quantum mechanics emerged as a "patch" of classical physics. During the development of energy-saving incandescent lamps, physicists found that if the energy equalization theory at that time was followed, when the radiation frequency tended to infinity, the radiant energy would also become infinite, which was seriously inconsistent with the real world. As a result, Planck put a "patch" on physics that he himself did not understand, proposing that energy is not continuous, but runs out one by one, which is also the origin of the word "quantum".
Later, Einstein used the "quantum" theory to explain the photoelectric effect. In this phenomenon, whether or not light can "punch" electrons from the metal plate has nothing to do with the intensity of the light, but with the frequency of the light. Einstein pointed out that light is made up of discrete light quanta, rather than continuous fluctuations, where the energy of each light quantum is proportional to frequency and is indivisible. By the way, Einstein won the Nobel Prize precisely for this research, and not for the theory of relativity......
Later, with the deepening of the study of atomic structure, electromagnetic waves, and diffraction phenomena of elementary particles, the "patch" of quantum mechanics became bigger and bigger, and gradually became the basic theory of physics.
The emergence of quantum mechanics began in the microscopic world. In the microscopic world, there are many counter-intuitive phenomena, such as the electron double-slit experiment, which, to put it bluntly, is "one electron passes through two slits at the same time". In the macrocosm, we have never seen a person walk out of the east gate and the west gate at the same time, so in the early days of the development of quantum mechanics, physicists proposed various interpretations of quantum phenomena, and various interpretations were inseparable.
Later, these hermeneutic wars gradually subsided (or are developing in the direction of subsidence), and with the advent of Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and Schrödinger's wave dynamics (both theories are actually equivalent), the interpretation of quantum mechanics slowly entered the era of "shut up, forget it!" of uninterpretive mathematics.
In other words, there is a growing recognition that quantum mechanics is the fundamental working law of the world, that it can be based on rigorous mathematics and does not need to be interpreted. Conversely, the macrocosm is the thing that needs to be "explained" – what the microcosm can do, why can't the macrocosm do it?
Since the foundations of quantum mechanics have now switched from experimental physics to mathematics, and mathematics is a "winning" discipline, the predictions of quantum mechanics can often be verified experimentally, and it is one of the most accurate theories in the field of science to describe the world. In conflict with it, I am afraid that it is only in the field of black hole research, and general relativity and quantum mechanics have not yet been unified.
However, under the operation of unscrupulous people, quantum mechanics suddenly appeared in the field...... See image for source
It doesn't matter if this large section looks strenuous, the next part is easy to understand, let's talk about what quantum mechanics is normally used for, and what quantum mechanics can't be used for.
Quantum mechanics, where is it used?
With the development of quantum mechanics, more and more physical phenomena have been predicted, confirmed and applied. We all have a mobile phone, which is built on semiconductor technology, and the foundation of semiconductor science is quantum mechanics (fortunately, no one has played the "quantum phone" signboard yet).
The principles behind lasers, superconductivity, nuclear magnetic resonance, atomic clocks, and even the sun's luminescence and heating are all quantum mechanics.
In addition, quantum mechanics can also be used in informatics. This is not what the scammers call "information tea", but long-range communication and information encryption. At present, these research areas are still making steady progress.
Science is developing, and pseudoscience is not idle. Now, there are more and more "quantum XX" in society, what quantum fluctuation reading (it is better to fan the wind with books), quantum empowerment seeds ("quantum energy cabin" is an iron house) and other thunderous news, endlessly.
Do you still remember the funny and angry quantum fluctuation speed reading scam back then? The picture comes from the Internet
Back to this "quantum breeding" incident, the merchant said that the seeds do not need to be unpacked, and the bags do not need to be pierced, and the seeds can be directly "quantum empowered" to improve the yield through light. Why?
See image for source
Let's say we dry the seeds in the sun or roast them in the house. As we said earlier, sunlight or infrared rays are composed of light quanta, which contain energy, so if you really want to get to the bottom of it, the process of seeds basking in the sun must have both quantum and empowerment...... After the grain harvest, it has to be dried, so can the rice, noodles, and steamed buns we eat be regarded as "quantum empowerment" food? Can we say that there is any lofty "quantum technology" here?
And this time, the so-called "quantum empowerment" seeds, there is also a routine, the first year is free "empowerment", if you think that the spirit will come back in the second year, you will pay the money. Some people may say, I used this, and the yield really went up, and it feels pretty good.
On the one hand, the yield of crops is related to many factors, it is not reliable to rely on the business to flicker with one mouth, and it is not clear which factors have played a role without doing control experiments. What's more, some farmer friends really did experiments, and some people came to the result that the yield of "empowered" seeds became worse......
On the other hand, we can give a similar example: we know that the idea of preference for sons over women was once deep-rooted, and some people had the idea to use mung bean fried noodles to develop a "raw male medicine", and the price was very high. However, he promised a full refund if he ate it and did not give birth to a boy. As a result, those who give birth to girls do not complain, and those who take "medicine" to give birth to boys will also help him publicize......
You might as well analyze it, what is his way of making money, and does the medicine have any effect?
It's all too easy to identify a quantum scam
How to identify "quantum" scammers? A simple and crude method is that "at present, anyone who mentions 'quantum xx' in the promotion of daily products is a liar."
"Quantum" is a neutral word that describes how the world works, not a compliment to "what are the additional benefits". Quantum theory describes the lowest level of laws, and "quantum" is often mentioned in the field of basic research: quantum chemistry, quantum encryption, quantum teleportation, quantum gravity theory, quantum computing, etc., to show the difference from traditional means (also neutral words).
Once quantum theory is applied in daily life, technologies such as lasers and chips are generally not specifically mentioned as "quantum". To put it simply, "quantum" products in daily life or specifically advertise the use of quantum theory behind a product can be regarded as an "IQ tax".
The picture comes from the Internet
To sum up, it doesn't matter if you don't know enough about "quantum mechanics". We just need to know that when a merchant mentions "Quantum XX", it is most likely to cheat you for money.
In addition, the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates that "an advertisement that deceives or misleads consumers with false or misleading content constitutes false advertising." "The use of fictitious, falsified, or unverifiable scientific research results, statistical data, survey results, abstracts, quotations, and other information as supporting materials" can be found to be false advertising. If you suspect that you have been cheated, please contact the local industrial and commercial department directly or call 12315 to report it.
Planning and production
Author丨Qu Jiong, creator of popular science
Review丨Liu Qian, researcher of Beijing Planetarium
Planning丨Ding Kun
Editor丨Ding Kun
Reviewer丨Xu Lai Linlin