Can objects in nature store light information on the quantum level?

[Maximum7]

TL;DR Summary

I’m trying to figure out if objects in nature can store light

In the 1934 novel by John Taine, Before the Dawn, scientists are able to retrieve images of the past by accessing the light absorbed by stones throughout history. While this is fictional, 1934 was really before the dawn of quantum physics.

In the far future, could we retrieve images from light stored in dinosaur bones or rocks or crystals at the quantum level to see accurate images from the past like what dinosaurs really looked like?

My research has led me to this phenomenon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetically_induced_transparency and I wonder if it is relevant to what I want. It leads to slow light which I know is a real phenomenon. But I wonder if light from 65 million years ago+ is still in these objects at the quantum level

 

[PeterDonis]

In the far future, could we retrieve images from light stored in dinosaur bones or rocks or crystals at the quantum level to see accurate images from the past like what dinosaurs really looked like?

No.

My research has led me to this phenomenon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetically_induced_transparency and I wonder if it is relevant to what I want. It leads to slow light which I know is a real phenomenon. But I wonder if light from 65 million years ago+ is still in these objects at the quantum level

No. The phenomena referred to in the Wikipedia article you reference require very precisely tuned materials and very precisely tuned experimental procedures. They are not anything that is going to happen naturally.

For an analogy, consider that we can store images on photographic film or in digital media, but that doesn't mean stored images are everywhere in our environment. Stored images on photographic film or in digital media are the results of particular, precisely designed processes that don't happen naturally. That's why there are no stored images on film or digital media of dinosaurs from 65+ million years ago even though all the materials we make cameras and photographic film and digital media from were present on Earth back then. The processes that lead to "slow light" or "stopped light", as far as "storing images" is concerned, are just extremely expensive and inefficient ways of doing what cameras and film/digital media already do very cheaply--but just as with cameras and film/digital media, they only happen under precisely designed conditions.

 

[.Scott]

As @PeterDonis has said, nothing fits the bill of what you are describing. Certainly a material can be affected by exposure to light - especially a long-term exposure to direct sunlight, and the change could even be retained for millions of years. But you would be underwhelmed by the information that could be gathered from such an artifact.

 

[Maximum7]

As @PeterDonis has said, nothing fits the bill of what you are describing. Certainly a material can be affected by exposure to light - especially a long-term exposure to direct sunlight, and the change could even be retained for millions of years. But you would be underwhelmed by the information that could be gathered from such an artifact.

Okay. So there is no way to get images from the past through ancient photons?

 

[PeterDonis]

Okay. So there is no way to get images from the past through ancient photons?

No.

 

[Maximum7]

No.

What about photons quantumly entangled through time?

 

[PeterDonis]

What about photons quantumly entangled through time?

What do you mean by this?

 

[Maximum7]

What do you mean by this?

Could we create an entangled pair of photons; one in 2024 and one 65,000,000 mya to allow us to see what a skeleton of a dinosaur looked like right after it died. I recently learned that scientists could entangle particles on their own. Yet I know QE cannot allow for transfer of information but is an image the same thing as a written message? Yeah, right?

 

[PeterDonis]

Could we create an entangled pair of photons; one in 2024 and one 65,000,000 mya to allow us to see what a skeleton of a dinosaur looked like right after it died.

No. We would have to have had physicists around 65 million years ago to do the creating then. Plus some way of keeping photons coherent for 65 million years so we could complete the measurement now. And of course we have neither of those things.

I recently learned

Where? Please give a reference.

that scientists could entangle particles on their own. Yet I know QE cannot allow for transfer of information but is an image the same thing as a written message? Yeah, right?

Without a reference I can't tell. But this doesn't sound like anything that's actually valid.

 

[PeterDonis]

@Maximum7 I have changed the level of this thread to "B". You clearly do not have sufficient background knowledge for an "A" level or even an "I" level discussion.

 

[Maximum7]

No. We would have to have had physicists around 65 million years ago to do the creating then. Plus some way of keeping photons coherent for 65 million years so we could complete the measurement now. And of course we have neither of those things.


Where? Please give a reference.


Without a reference I can't tell. But this doesn't sound like anything that's actually valid.

https://research.princeton.edu/news...r the first time, a,apart, or indeed, even if

 

[PeterDonis]

https://research.princeton.edu/news/physicists-‘entangle’-individual-molecules-first-time-bringing-about-new-platform-quantum#:~:text=For the first time, a,apart, or indeed, even if

This experiment is not about "entangling particles on their own". We already know how to entangle individual particles, such as pairs of electrons or photons. This experiment was new in that it entangled molecules, i.e., systems consisting of multiple particles.

That said, nothing in this experiment demonstrates anything that would make anything you have asked about in this thread possible.

 

[.Scott]

Okay. So there is no way to get images from the past through ancient photons?

Galaxy NGC 3972 is about 65 million light-years away. So with a telescope ...
But, no, not images of ancient forests.

 

[hutchphd]

TL;DR Summary: I’m trying to figure out if objects in nature can store light

In the 1934 novel by John Taine, Before the Dawn, scientists are able to retrieve images of the past by accessing the light absorbed by stones throughout history. While this is fictional, 1934 was really before the dawn of quantum physics.

In the far future, could we retrieve images from light stored in dinosaur bones or rocks or crystals at the quantum level to see accurate images from the past like what dinosaurs really looked like?

My research has led me to this phenomenon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetically_induced_transparency and I wonder if it is relevant to what I want. It leads to slow light which I know is a real phenomenon. But I wonder if light from 65 million years ago+ is still in these objects at the quantum level

One of my favorite short stories is "light of other Days" (1966)about slow glass. Not much science there but an interesting story. Anybody read it?

 

[DrChinese]

One of my favorite short stories is "light of other Days" (1966)about slow glass. Not much science there but an interesting story. Anybody read it?

I remember a story like that… been a while…