'' QUANTUM WORLD QUAGMIRE '' : GLOBAL ESSAY

STUDENTS QUANTUM MECHANICS : Imagine a tiny ball stuck in a valley between two hills. In classical physics, the ball would need enough energy to climb over the hills.

BUT in quantum physics, the ball can sometimes '' tunnel '' through the hill without ever going through it.

THIS YEAR'S Nobel laureates - John Clarke, Michel H Devoret, and John M Martinis were recognised  '' for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electrical circuit.

THAT may sound complex, but in simpler terms their experiments showed that quantum behaviour. [ seen only in atoms and subatomic particles ] can also appear in larger man-made circuits.

They built extremely cold, well-isolated superconducting circuits that could behave according to the strange rules of quantum mechanics.

To explain this in everyday language : imagine a tiny ball stuck in a valley between two hills. In classical physics, the ball would need enough energy to climb over the hills.

But in quantum physics the ball can sometimes '' tunnel '' through the hill without ever going over it.

The scientists demonstrated this tunneling in an electrical circuit, a system we can touch and measure.  They also proved that the energy levels of that circuit came in discrete steps, not as a smooth continuum.

This was groundbreaking because it confirmed that quantum rules still apply even when we scale up from atoms to visible electronic components.

Their achievement changed the way physicists view the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds.

Before their work, quantum mechanics was mostly seen as the science of the very small. After their experiments, it became clear that quantum principles could be designed and controlled in the lab using superconducting devices.

THIS DISCOVERY laid the foundation for what we now call quantum technology [ a field that includes quantum computers, sensors and communication systems.]

This Master Essay Publishing continues into the future. The World Students Society thanks Professor  Dr. Intikhab Ulfat, who teaches Physics at the University of Karachi.