Physicists solve a centuries-old riddle: the chicken or the egg



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This is the age-old question that still provokes debate.

The paradox "chicken or egg" was first proposed by philosophers of ancient Greece to describe the problem of determining cause and effect.

Now a team of physicists from the University of Queensland and the NÉEL Institute

showed that chicken and egg can both come first.

You still do not understand? The answer lies in quantum physics. We will let the experts explain.

Dr. Jacqui Romero said that in quantum physics, the causes and effects were not always as simple as one event causing another.

"The strangeness of quantum mechanics means that events can happen in no particular order," said Dr. Romero. "Let's take the example of your daily trip to work, where you travel partly by bus and partly by train.

"Normally, you take the bus then the train, or vice versa. In our experience, these two events can occur first.

"It's called" indefinite causal order "and it's not something we can observe in our daily lives."

To observe this effect in the laboratory, the researchers used a device called photonic quantum switch.

Mr. Fabio Costa said that with this device, the order of events – transformations on the shape of light – depends on the polarization.

"By measuring the polarization of the photons at the output of the quantum switch, we were able to show that the order of the transformations on the shape of the light was not regulated," he said.

"This is only a first proof of principle, but on a larger scale, the indefinite causal order can have real practical applications, such as making computers more efficient or improving communication."

Still confused?

This study is obviously based on physics, unlike others who claimed to have scientifically proven that chicken had been the first to use other methods.

In 2014, British scientists used a supercomputer to examine in detail a chicken eggshell and were able to determine the vital role of a protein used to trigger egg formation.

This protein is only found in – you guessed it – a chicken.

But the chickens did not really start like chickens.

The very first existing chicken would have been the result of a genetic mutation occurring in a zygote produced by two quasi- chickens.

With amniotic eggs that appeared about 340 million years ago, and the first chickens evolved as early as 58,000 years ago, others think that the egg is the first.

Sorry if we did not really help solve the table argument!

This story appeared in news.com.au.

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