Could your thoughts prevent a particle from decaying? Could your thoughts speed up the particle’s decay?
Experiments in quantum physics have shown that the researcher can physically impact what he or she is observing simply by observing it.
Researchers have found that the act of measuring some particles can either stop or speed up the particles’ decay. Measuring more frequently inhibits the decay. It’s like the proverbial watched pot that never boils.
By adjusting the measuring time in other ways (described in more detail below), the researchers were also able to speed up decay. These effects of observation violate the classical universal law of exponential decay.
Slowing the decay is known as the quantum Zeno effect. It was first presented in the 1977 paper “The Zeno’s Paradox in Quantum Theory,” published in the Journal of Mathematical Physics and written by Baidyanaith Misra and George Sudarshan. It is named for the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea.
To read more, click here.