The Phase of Matter That Repeats Forever

[00:00:00]Physics says nothing can move forever without energy. Scientists just proved that wrong, and it has shattered one of the most fundamental rules in all of science.

[00:00:10]In 2012, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek proposed something impossible. A new phase of matter that repeats in time endlessly, like a crystal repeats in space.

[00:00:24]Three years later, mathematicians proved his exact version was forbidden by the laws of physics.

[00:00:31]Time crystals were dead, or so everyone thought.

[00:00:35]Plot twist.

[00:00:37]In 2017, two independent teams, one at the University of Maryland, one at Harvard, simultaneously published proof that a new kind of time crystal was absolutely real.

[00:00:50]The Maryland team built theirs from just 10 ytterbium ions.

[00:00:54]Then in 2021, Google's Sycamore quantum processor created one using 20 qubits.

[00:01:02]Here is the mind-breaking part. It oscillates at exactly half the frequency of the energy driving it.

[00:01:08]The universe is literally echoing back at a different rhythm.

[00:01:12]Time crystals are only the beginning.

[00:01:14]The deep rabbit hole goes much deeper.

[00:01:17]Follow right now so you never miss the next mind-bending discovery.