I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, and it’s really an amazing book. I’d like to share one excerpt that fascinates me. While discussing subatomic particles (pp. 145-146):

Perhaps the most arresting of quantum improbabilities is the idea… that the subatomic particles in certain pairs, even when separated by the most considerable distances, can instantly ‘know’ what the other is doing… Remarkably, the phenomenon was proved in 1997 when physicists at the University of Geneva sent photons seven miles in opposite directions and demonstrated that interfering with one provoked an instantaneous response in the other.

That’s really pretty crazy. There’s a bit more about it here. For what it’s worth, speaking of quantum entanglement, which is somehow related*, Einstein himself called it “spooky action at a distance.” A Christian Science Monitor article under that name talks about the concept of “quantum communication” a bit more, and references the 1997 experiment, plus mentions the implication I’d inferred: the effect on the other particles seven miles away was instant, not just at the speed of light. Theoretically, this could have tremendous implications for long-range communications, where the speed of light is an impediment, especially as modern technologies minimize the acceptable signal delay in some circumstances to microseconds.

* Without Bill Bryson explaining it, I’m pretty much lost.