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But let's look at our ordinary lives for a change. Take your fingertips for a start. They are made out of skin cells, inside them are molecules, and inside them are atoms of carbon. The only thing in the universe that can make a carbon atom is a supernova. So the carbon atoms in your brain are actually far older than the Sun - born in a star that exploded more than five billion years ago.
Your fingertips are pretty old then. But lets go inside their atoms to the protons and neutrons, and further still to the quarks. How old are they you might ask? Well, they were actually created a few seconds after the Big Bang. This means that bits of your fingertips have actually been around for the entire 14 billion year history of the universe. If that isn't astounding then I don't know what is. It makes Greek tragedy and every human drama ever written seem utterly insignificant.You are more than a spectator of the cosmic epic - you are an intimate part of it!
What's more, when you play with bits of atoms they behave in a very extraordinary way. They get from one place to another by every possible route - in fact by an infinite number of routes. You don't believe me? I don't blame you. But it's been demonstrated countless thousands of times over! This is the reason science believes that Multiple Universes are real. And this is not 'fringe' science let me tell you - I'm using only Nobels and Major Dudes.
And if that isn't enough to convince you, then what about the mad race that's on at laboratories all over the world to construct the first commercial quantum computer. Briefly - if these guys can process information using the infinite parallel universes that surround us, they will be able to create a computer so fast it will make today's supercomputers look just - silly. There are whole scientific institutes, as well as at least three journals devoted exclusively to quantum computing, and the pace is hotting up! I'm not kidding you, this is serious science.
The surprise 'harder to believe' icing on the cake, is that bits of atoms don't just travel by an infinite number of paths, they are all apparently connected. Not just here in our solar system, but throughout the universe! I can hear you thinking this is just plain horse….play. But a French person called Alain Aspect did the first defining experiment ages ago. Since then literally hundreds have been carried out. No one knows how or why. Not even John Bell who first proved it using maths of course. In an interview he said he didn't understand it either, but he was sure it would turn out to be 'non-trivial'. He didn't mean to be funny, but I love it. It's got to be one of the greatest understatements in the history of science!
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