Physicists Just Built First-Ever Time Crystal (And This Is Crazy!)

Bright Side

A look into two of the most astonishing breakthroughs in modern science. From the creation of the world’s first-ever time crystal - a state of matter that seems to defy the rules of physics to a powerful moon crystal believed to contain enough energy to fuel our planet for tens of thousands of years. Quantum mysteries, futuristic energy sources, and discoveries that push the boundaries of what we thought was possible.  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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00:00Recently, scientists have created the first time crystal.

00:04It sounds like something straight out of science fiction, doesn't it?

00:07As if it's some kind of mysterious component for a time machine.

00:11But this isn't quite true.

00:14In reality, time crystals are more like a perpetual motion machine.

00:18But what exactly are they, and how do they work?

00:22Let's find out.

00:24First, let's talk about crystals in general.

00:26Take a regular crystal and examine it under a microscope.

00:31You'll see that it, like everything around us, consists of molecules and atoms.

00:37What makes them special is that their atoms are arranged in a repeating pattern.

00:43For example, let's take a salt crystal.

00:46If we look at it under a microscope, we'll see a repeating pattern inside it.

00:51And this pattern is the same everywhere, no matter how small or large the piece of salt is, or what shape it is.

00:59In the whole crystal, the pattern will be unchanged.

01:02And it will always remain like this, no matter how much time has passed.

01:06The salt crystal will still have the same repeating pattern of atoms tomorrow, next week, or even next year.

01:14Now, let's move on to time crystals.

01:17They're just like regular ones, but with a twist.

01:20You probably know that all atoms around us are constantly moving, even at very, very low temperatures, when everything freezes and nothing can stop them.

01:31Also, their movement is random, chaotic, and unpredictable, just kind of jiggling in space.

01:37However, in time crystals, everything is different.

01:42Not only are their atoms arranged in a repeating pattern, just like in regular crystals, but they also move in a looped, endlessly repeating dance.

01:52Now that's weird.

01:54The atoms in time crystals are like an endless, looped dance party, while the guests repeat the same moves in the same order over and over again.

02:03This dance, or repeating pattern, can be completely different.

02:09The movements can be basic and simple, or very complex and chaotic, but they have to be looped.

02:16Hence the name.

02:17Regular crystals repeat themselves endlessly in space.

02:21And time crystals repeat themselves in both space and time.

02:25Now, just to clarify, these crystals aren't the kind we're used to.

02:32They don't look like diamonds, or emeralds, or anything like that.

02:36To be honest, they don't look like much at all.

02:38The beautiful name, time crystal, describes a new, very strange kind of matter that changes in quantum states over a period of time.

02:47Basically, it's just the dance movements of atoms.

02:51So, unfortunately, you can't just put one on your shelf to jiggle there.

02:57It's not a beautiful piece of quartz.

02:59It's more like, uh, curiosity in physics.

03:03But that doesn't mean that these crystals aren't cool.

03:07Actually, there's something very unusual and interesting about them.

03:10You see, the movements we talked about persist even at absolute zero temperature.

03:17That is, even when in normal materials and objects, atoms would freeze, lose energy, and stop moving.

03:25In time crystals, they continue their endless dance, as if nothing happened.

03:31Oh, and that's just the beginning.

03:34Scientists are also stunned, because the existence of time crystals violates the second law of thermodynamics.

03:40This law states that, over time, any system becomes random and disordered.

03:46A warm object will distribute its heat and become cold.

03:50A vase balancing on the edge of a table will fall one day.

03:54And so on.

03:56But time crystals are like, eh, we don't care about your thermos something something.

04:01Not only do they move constantly, in the same pattern, no matter what happens to them,

04:06but they also don't need any energy to do so.

04:09Even if they don't receive energy from anywhere, they don't stop dancing and don't become less structured or organized.

04:17Yep, we've created a beautiful, incomprehensible miracle of nature that violates the laws of physics.

04:24Isn't that impressive?

04:27But how is this even possible?

04:29And why?

04:30Does it mean that there's nothing that can stop these atoms?

04:33And most importantly, could it be a clue for the secrets of the perpetual motion machine?

04:40Well, it's quite complicated.

04:43Once again, quantum mechanics is blowing up scientists' brains.

04:47This time, with another mystery.

04:50A unique and unusual behavior that we're still trying to understand.

04:54Since it's a relatively new area of research, we aren't yet sure exact work and how we can use them.

05:02By the way, how did we even discover these guys?

05:05And how were they created?

05:06Time crystals were first predicted to exist in 2012 by theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek.

05:15Not all physicists accepted the theory at the time.

05:18Many believed it was impossible to violate the second law of thermodynamics.

05:22But the universe doesn't really care what scientists think.

05:26And Frank Wilczek won a Nobel Prize for his work.

05:29However, it took a few more years for scientists to actually create and observe the first time crystals.

05:37It happened in 2016, when scientists from the University of Maryland managed to create one using ions of the rare earth metal yterbium.

05:46Here's what they did.

05:48First, they took a regular crystal and really, really cooled down the atoms inside it to near absolute zero.

05:55As already mentioned, absolute zero is the temperature at which atoms stop moving.

06:00So far, we don't know how to reach this temperature, but we can get very, very close to it.

06:06We can slow down the atoms so much that they almost stop.

06:10So they took all these atoms and made them move really slow.

06:14And then, they started shocking them with lasers.

06:18It made the atoms switch between different states over and over again,

06:22without absorbing any energy from the laser.

06:25You could say that the laser gave them a beat and made them dance by themselves without anyone's help.

06:32The result was the first ever time crystal.

06:36The Maryland scientists' experiment was a major breakthrough and showed that time crystals were a real observable phenomenon.

06:43It made quite a fuss in the scientific community and was a huge step forward in the strange world of quantum mechanics.

06:51Unfortunately, there was one problem.

06:53Such perpetual motion only truly exists forever in ideal time crystals.

06:59And since the time crystals in our experiments weren't ideal,

07:03they lasted only a few minutes before they melted and started behaving normally again.

07:08What does it mean?

07:10It means that so far, unfortunately, we can't create a perpetual motion machine.

07:15If we try to do something like that, time crystals will immediately melt.

07:20But this didn't stop the scientists, and in 2021, we finally made another breakthrough.

07:28Researchers at Google, in collaboration with physicists at Stanford, Princeton, and other universities,

07:34used Google's quantum computer, a much bigger and much more stable time crystal.

07:39You see, quantum computers are different from your typical laptop.

07:45They don't use regular bits and don't work with silicon.

07:49Instead, they work with quantum bits that can exist in multiple states at the same time.

07:55This allows the time crystals to keep oscillating in a repeating pattern, even when all other motion has stopped.

08:01All the previous crystals were short-lived, made a couple of flip-flops, and immediately melted.

08:08But now, scientists have created a crystal bigger and better than ever before.

08:13So, what does this mean for us?

08:16Well, time crystals could hold the key to unlocking new technologies and a deeper understanding of the quantum world.

08:23For starters, they'll help us better explore the world of quantum mechanics.

08:28They challenge our understanding of time and the way that matter behaves.

08:33In classical physics, things are either static or they're moving in a predictable, repeating pattern.

08:39But time crystals don't care.

08:41They enjoy both static and moving at the same time.

08:46They can also help us create cool new technologies.

08:49They can bring us closer to creating full-fledged quantum computers.

08:54Engineers have struggled for years to create something that could serve as memory in quantum computers.

09:00And now they could use time crystals for that.

09:03Their repeating patterns of motion might be able to store information.

09:07Isn't that awesome?

09:09We'll also be able to create many other cool things with them.

09:13For example, we could use their repetitive behavior to create a new kind of ultra-precise clock.

09:19Time crystals are still a relatively new area of research.

09:25Right now, we're mostly trying to understand their unique properties and characteristics.

09:30Scientists are also performing experiments to study their behavior under different conditions.

09:35For example, in different temperatures and magnetic fields.

09:38In other words, this field of research is still in its early stages.

09:44But time crystals are a truly mind-boggling discovery that shows just how strange and wonderful the universe can be.

09:51They're already attracting a great deal of interest and attention from scientists around the world.

09:56I can't wait to see how many exciting and groundbreaking discoveries will come from this area in the future.

10:07Recently, Chinese scientists discovered something interesting on the Moon.

10:12An unusual crystal.

10:14Moreover, they found out that this crystal contains an element that can literally replace nuclear fuel.

10:20Let's find out more.

10:21The composition of the Moon has long remained a mystery to us.

10:26Half a century has already passed since the Apollo mission.

10:30Unfortunately, we haven't traveled to the Moon much since then.

10:33So, it's not surprising that it's not so easy for us to study it.

10:37But, recently, we've made a breakthrough in this area.

10:40In December 2020, Chinese scientists sent the Chang'a 5 probe to the Moon.

10:46The mission was named after the ancient Chinese deity of the Moon, Chang'a.

10:51Quite poetic, isn't it?

10:53Anyway, after the probe went to the nearest side of the Moon,

10:56it spent several days digging through the surface and rocks and then returned to Earth.

11:01In total, it collected about four pounds of various lunar rocks,

11:06like basalt, solidified lava, and so on.

11:09And, yeah, maybe it doesn't sound too impressive, but it's actually a mini-breakthrough.

11:15After all, we hadn't received any lunar samples since 1976.

11:20And these samples are very important for learning the history of our world.

11:24We've been struggling for many years to find out, for example, how the Moon was born at all.

11:30Yes, there were a lot of theories, but we still couldn't find any proper evidence for any of them.

11:35But thanks to the latest missions and some computer simulations, scientists finally found out the truth.

11:43The Moon was born when some random dwarf planet crashed into our Earth many millions of years ago.

11:49This dwarf planet was slightly smaller than Mars.

11:53The fragments of the Earth went into space, but some of them stayed in our orbit.

11:57Then they stuck together and formed the Moon.

12:01It sounds horrifying, but in reality, the birth of the Moon was the best thing to ever happen to our planet.

12:08If it weren't for this beautiful satellite, all our oceans would be small puddles.

12:12Life wouldn't have appeared on Earth at all.

12:15So this is already an amazing discovery, but that's still not all.

12:20Studying the collected rocks, scientists from the Beijing Research Institute discovered something unusual.

12:26A rare lunar crystal.

12:30Looks pretty boring, doesn't it?

12:31Just some tiny transparent monocrystal about the thickness of a human hair.

12:36We've already found such things on the Moon before.

12:39These crystals were formed as a result of volcanic activity, just like some garnets on the Earth.

12:45And yep, the place where they discovered these crystals also suffered from volcanoes, 1.2 billion years ago.

12:52That means that this tiny baby is over a billion years old.

12:57But that's not the most important thing.

13:00It's the fact that this crystal is made of a unique material, the one that we've never seen before.

13:06Researchers from the International Mineralogical Association have confirmed that such a composition can't be found anywhere on Earth.

13:14The crystal was named Chongacite, again after the same Moon deity.

13:20And this is another achievement.

13:23This is the sixth previously unknown mineral that we've found on the Moon, and the first one found by China.

13:29Now, it has become the third country in the world to make such a lunar discovery.

13:33However, this tiny crystal still wasn't the only remarkable thing they found.

13:39After studying this gem and about 140,000 other lunar particles, scientists have discovered something else.

13:47They found helium-3.

13:50Why is it so important?

13:52Because this is one of the elements that feed the Sun and other stars in our universe.

13:57We tend to say stuff like, put out the Sun, the Sun is burning, and so on.

14:04And this is one of the reasons why many people actually think that the Sun is a huge fireball.

14:10But it's not.

14:12Its burning is actually a completely different process, which is called nuclear fusion.

14:17The process itself is quite simple.

14:21During this reaction, hydrogen in the star turns into helium.

14:25But this simple process is actually one of the most violent and insane reactions in the universe.

14:32There is a real boiling broth of particles inside the Sun.

14:35The hydrogen nuclei that jump and rush there are constantly repelling each other, since all of them are positively charged.

14:43And so, they could continue to boil and chill around without bothering anyone, if it weren't for the stars.

14:50The stars turned out to be cheaters.

14:52They have such strong gravity that they basically grab billions of these little atoms and squeeze them together.

14:59Combining with each other, these atoms create new heavy elements, like the mentioned helium.

15:05And when this happens, they throw a lot of energy into space.

15:10And that's how the Sun burns.

15:12At the same time, it spreads so much energy that we can't even imagine.

15:17Okay, so what is helium-3?

15:20Well, this is an element to which even the Sun can say,

15:24Whoa, dude, you should calm down.

15:25The fusion of helium-3 atoms releases even more energy than in typical nuclear fusion.

15:32And most importantly, it doesn't pollute the atmosphere with harmful things like radiation.

15:38We have very, very little helium-3 on Earth.

15:42Its prevalence in our atmosphere is about one in a million.

15:46And besides, it's constantly trying to escape from us back into space.

15:50Probably feel some bad vibes from us.

15:53However, scientists have recently found out that there's a place that contains a lot of this element.

16:01Yep, you guessed it.

16:02It's the Moon.

16:04We think that there's more helium-3 on the Moon than on Earth because of the solar winds.

16:09The Sun has been hammering on the Moon with its helium-3 for billions of years.

16:14So now, it's all over the place.

16:17It's still not too much if you compare it, for example, with Jupiter or Saturn.

16:22But don't forget how much energy it can release.

16:26For your information, with only 25 tons of helium-3,

16:30it's possible to provide America with energy for an entire year.

16:34Now, there are 35,000 tons of it here on Earth.

16:38And more than a million tons on the Moon.

16:40Only these sources could feed the entire U.S. for thousands of years.

16:46So basically, in the future, helium-3 may become a new source of fuel.

16:51And it's better than nuclear fuel in basically everything.

16:56Helium-3 won't leave any harmful waste and radiation.

16:59It's more powerful and not that dangerous.

17:01In other words, this environmentally friendly and efficient energy could be a revolution for our planet.

17:08Sounds cool, huh?

17:10So, what are we waiting for?

17:13Grab the shovels, you might say.

17:15But there's a little problem here.

17:17Unfortunately, we haven't yet come up with anything as wildly strong and hot as the stars.

17:23To use helium-3, we need crazy temperatures and pressure.

17:28We need a thermonuclear reactor.

17:30And we have no idea how to build it.

17:32Yet.

17:32And even if we could heat it up to such temperatures and get the needed pressure,

17:37we still don't really know how to handle helium-3 correctly.

17:42Therefore, even if we have an infinite amount of helium-3, we still won't be able to use it.

17:48But still, there's a great power behind helium-3.

17:51So, it's not surprising that different countries have already started a race for nuclear resources.

17:57Now that Chang'a 5 has discovered a new helium-3 deposit on the nearest side of the moon,

18:03this race can become downright global.

18:06For example, China already plans a new lunar mission in 2024, Chang'a 6.

18:11During this mission, they want to collect the first samples from the far side of the moon.

18:18As you can see, finding this lunar crystal was very important for us.

18:23These crystals can help us find new ways to create helium-3.

18:27And if we manage to do that, humankind will enter a new era.

18:31But to do this, we still have to solve a number of problems.

18:36How to deliver a bunch of these lunar crystals to Earth.

18:39How to make them produce energy.

18:41And so on.

18:42Let's hope that in the future, these issues will be resolved.

18:46And we'll find a way to produce clean, safe, unlimited energy.

18:52That's it for today.

18:53So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

18:58Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.

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