Diamonds Are a Quantum Sensing Scientist’s Best Friend

11/10/2021 19 min
Diamonds Are a Quantum Sensing Scientist’s Best Friend

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Episode Synopsis

We all know that diamonds can hold great sentimental (and monetary) value. As luck may have it, diamonds—particularly defective ones, with little errors in their crystal structure—also hold great scientific value. The defects have properties that can only be described by quantum mechanics, and researchers are working on harnessing these properties to pick up on tiny signals coming from individual biological cells.