Few days back I had my own version of the classic “I told you so!” moment. And as expected it had to do with Quantum Mechanics and Chaos Theory, so I am quite excited to write something about it :). Here is my story: ask any theoretical physicist out there, and he (on some rare occasions, she) will boldly tell you that you just cannot observe quantum peturbations on a macro scale.. forget observing, they just do not happen. Simply put: Quantum mechanics == atomic world, Newton’s Laws==Real world.  But I always believed the line of thought that the quantum “magic” does not only occur within the walls of the sub-atomic world, its everywhere.

Before you start yawning, just read me out…I don’t want you to lose on me on this one :).

Since 20th century, there were two major theories (or rather discoveries) which we thought governed everything around us:

1. Theory of Relativity (by Einstein): changed our perception of the Universe completely. Latest experiments by NASA have proved the groun-breaking theory and changed our perception of both space and time.

2. Quantum Mechanics (Heisenber, Planck): observed only in sub-atomic particles.

3. Chaos theory: the “mother” of all theories! At least I believe that..quite strongly 🙂

Until last few years, it was thought that the normal physical laws “lose” their meaning in the quantum world, and quantum mechanics has no relevance in our day-to-day physical world unless we deal at microscopic sub-atomic levels.

Just to understand better, consider a practical example. If you throw a ball up in air, it is bound to come down, unless there is some external force acting on it apart from gravity. Similary, if you push an object using some force, you can calculate its next position given basic values like the amount of force use, friction etc. This is our real world where we can see, feel and experience different events as they occur. This includes the Universe around us.

But things radically, or rather magically, change in the sub-atomic world, which is also a “real world” … one which we cannot observe with our naked eyes because the dimensions are so small that we need instruments more powerful than an electron microscope just to understand the basic events in the sub-atomic world. Here surprisingly all known mechanical laws either fail or are just not applicable, much to the frustration of scientists looking for some kind of unified theory which can bind both the sub-atomic and Universe (observable world) in some common field equations. For example, if we throw a sub-atomic ball up, it might not come down, but just disappear and then re-appear at some other location! This weird Cheshire cat like behavior is just one of the conundrums of Quantum Mechanics puzzling scientists the world over…until now.. 🙂

Two of the major foundations of Chaos Theory are:

1. Self similarity

2. Self organization

Both of these imply that every single particle around us, be it an electron or a tree-leaf or even the Moon, follows the same set of “rules” and is inter-twined in a similar self-replicating fashion. A good example of this is the beautiful and striking similarity between the planets in our Solar System, revolving around a central sun, and the atomic orbital planes, with electrons revolving around a core central nucleus. All this points to the interesting hypothesis that quantum rules might apply in real world too, with some obviously different rule sets.

Finally we have some evidence, and this recent article from Science Daily summarizes:

Dartmouth researchers have discovered a potentially important piece of the quantum/classical puzzle — learning how the rules of physics in the quantum world (think smaller than microscopic) change when applied to the classical world (think every day items, like cars and trees). 

Also, there is some interesting information on Quantum Entanglement, a mysterious phenomenon which can be seen with our naked eyes!

Finally, this article on Chaos Theory  in quantum mechanics hits the nail on the head, and makes me wonder if my “understanding” of the non-linear (aka super complex) relationship of our life, quantum phenomena and Chaos Theory would soon be proved right! 

I am sure if none of these electrons, neutrinos or the mighty Higgs boson (the God particle) interest you a bit, the effect of Chaos theory on your own personal life will definitely make you sit up and wonder the beauty of the universe around us! It is a great moment, the caterpillar is coming slowly out of the cocoon, ready to flutter its tender wings and create the next butterfly effect.

Since late March 2010, southern Iceland’s “junior” volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier has been spewing tonnes of volcanic material throwing air traffic though Europe to chaos and threatening to cause long term damage to the environment and weather not only in Iceland but to far flung areas in Western Europe and possibly the rest of the world. Few stats about this volcano and volcanic eruptions in general:

1. The last eruption was in 1821 and lasted for about two years. That time it spewed a lot of fluoride..which did not cover the upper atmosphere as much but had damaging results for organic life forms around.

2.Almost all past eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull have been followed by subsequent eruptions of its might brother, the giant Katla volcano.

3. If Katla too erupts, and ejects 10 million or more tons of sulphur dioxide..then global freezing may start as early within  next 2 years. Currently Eyjafjallajokull  alone is spewing 3000 tonnes of volcanic material per day (most sulphur dioxide) and shows no signs of slowing down.

4. The volcanic ash, which is extremely fine had a lower melting point than the interior of a jet plan engine. So when a plane passes through this ash, it gets in liquid molten state, seeps through the engine and gets solidified on the turbines where the temperature is much less. This solid glass like surface affects air flow and drastically reduce the thrust apart from permanently shutting down the engines.

5. Once this ash settles on Earth it will endanger the lungs of children, asthmatics and others with respiratory ailments.

6. The ash from the eruption has spread around the world quite quickly, within a few days and will cause the average temperature of the Earth to go down by one degree. If Katla too erupts, and the eruption continues for a long time, then Earth might be forced into another Ice age, causing permanent extinction of thousands of species.

7. Around 70,000 years ago, a volcano in Indonesia, Mount Toba had a big eruption which caused six year long winters followed by an Ice Age. Resulting environmental changes caused a near extinction of the human species.

8. Another fallout of continued volcanic eruptions: Acid Rains. The ash might mix with water vapour in the upper atomoshere, causing the sulphur dioxide in it to mix with water condensing and falling as acid rain on Earth.

One possible cause which might have triggered this Icelandic volcano can be the recent series of Earthquakes around the world (Haiti, Chile, Turkey, China and many others). Looks like the Poles have finally started reversing!