Just How Certain Is the Uncertainty Principle?

December 17, 2012 12:30 PM Text Size: A . A . A 1927: German physicist Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty principle: It's impossible to measure the physical property of anything without disturbing what you're measuring. For example, trying to measure a particle's position changes its speed.

2003: Japanese scientist Masanao Ozawa theorizes that Heisenberg's limit of uncertainty could be lower than previously believed. He claims that researchers can measure a particle's properties without disturbing others, or at least disturbing them less than Heisenberg thought.

2012: A team at the University of Toronto (pictured) uses a technique called weak measurement to delicately probe the properties of a single photon; the disturbance to the photon is less than the lowest uncertainty limit predicted by Heisenberg.

Why You Should Care: For physicists developing quantum cryptography technology, the uncertainty principle is crucial. Information is encoded in photons that vibrate in a particular sequence, and only the sender and recipient have a key. If anyone else intercepts the communications, the photons' spin will be affected, and the intrusion will be detected.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/news/just-how-certain-is-the-uncertainty-principle-14869320?src=rss

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