Does the act of observation change the outcome of an event?

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

03 February 2008

There are some interesting similarities between atomic properties and human behaviour. For example, the reason why oxygen molecules are made of two atoms is that pairing up reduces the amount of energy required to remain stable. The energy necessary to maintain one molecule is less than the total needed by two separate atoms.

Now, consider the case of a human being who breathes and absorbs in these oxygen molecules all his life from the moment he is born. Would it be unreasonable to expect him to exhibit the same attribute of wanting (nay, needing) to pair up with another person? Perhaps we can now begin to understand why humans feel the urge to pair up after about 10 to 15 years of age.

Indeed, if an oxygen atom is separated from its partner it becomes unstable and unsettled. The same behaviour that we observe in teenagers! Furthermore, combining three oxygen atoms together creates ozone, a very unstable molecule that only exists high above the earth where solar radiation is intense…just like polygamous and polyandrous affairs!

Another interesting similarity is summarised in the so-called Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. In the 1920s, Werner Heisenberg observed that it is impossible to determine the state of motion (speed, momentum etc) and the position of an atomic sized particle simultaneously.

He reasoned that, to observe anything, we must shine light (or some other radiation) on it. Since atomic particles are easily knocked around by radiation, then the act of observation changes their state of motion and their position.

As journalists found out while covering the recent demonstrations in the country, humans also exhibit a kind of uncertainty principle. They change their behaviour when they are being observed. In fact, it has been argued that the TV cameras might be aggravating the situation as demonstrators put on a “show for the whole world to see”. Perhaps this explains why the government put a ban on live broadcasts…

Still, Heisenberg came up with his Uncertainty Principle while working on the mechanics of small, lightweight objects – the so-called “quantum mechanics”. At about the same time, Erwin Schroedinger was also thinking about the same problem.

On hearing about the principle of uncertainty, Schroedinger posed the following puzzle: Suppose a cat is placed inside a black metal box in which there is a glass capsule containing some lethal poisonous gas.

After closing, the box is shaken to break the glass capsule thereby releasing the poison. The poor cat obviously inhales the gas. Schroedinger then asks what kills the cat: the poison or the act of opening the box to confirm whether it is actually dead?

Believe you me, many prominent scientists have written numerous articles in very scientific journals discussing the fate of the cat! And you thought there is no fun in science.