It’s been a very long time since I’ve used Blogger. This app is one of the lucky Google apps that has not been slashed. And I’m glad it hasn’t. This app reminds me of an Internet era that was fun for me.
So I’m going to try to use this app a bit more. App? I mean website.
I don’t feel like I have the time I used to, to just sit down and write the things that are on my mind. How much of my time recently has been spent in either the ChatGPT app or the perplexity AI app. These are apps that very seamlessly mesh with my type of thinking in my type of curiosity.
I’m not going to have ChatGPT right works of literature for me and then claim credit. But I will share some of my ChatGPT results from what my research produces.
Here’s an example. I went down the rabbit hole of learning more about photosynthesis. I think photosynthesis is one of the most incredible phenomenon. And that took me down other scientific pathways of curiosity.
Here is quantum tunneling:
Quantum tunneling, in simple terms, is when a particle manages to slip through a barrier that, by all classical accounts, it shouldn’t be able to cross. Imagine rolling a ball at a hill: if the ball doesn’t have enough energy (speed) to get over the hill, it’ll roll back down. Classically, that’s the end of the story. But quantum mechanics allows for a small chance that the “ball” can appear on the other side of the hill—even when it doesn’t have the energy to climb over the top. This “magical shortcut” is quantum tunneling.
Why is that so mind-blowing?
- Classically, it’s impossible: Nothing should get through the barrier if it doesn’t have enough energy.
- Quantum mechanics changes the rules: It introduces the idea of probability waves for particles, meaning a particle’s location and outcome are described by chances rather than strict certainties.
- Essential to the Sun’s power: Protons in the Sun’s core shouldn’t, by classical physics, have enough energy to overcome their electric repulsion and fuse. Without tunneling, fusion—and thus sunlight—wouldn’t happen at the rate we observe.
Once you realize quantum tunneling is the reason stars can fuse lighter elements into heavier ones, it’s a big eye-opener: the Sun and all starlight rely on a subtle effect of quantum mechanics rather than straightforward Newtonian physics. That’s what makes quantum tunneling so impressive. It keeps our star shining—and keeps us alive—by letting protons “borrow” a little probability-powered trick to come together despite their mutual repulsion.
