Shadowing Practice: How Quantum Batteries Break Every Rule of Charging - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Bigger batteries take longer to charge, right?
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We charge our phones in under an hour and leave the EV plugged in overnight.
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But what if today's batteries are the exception, not the rule?
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Researchers in Australia just built and tested a battery that turns everything we thought we knew about them upside down.
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The larger they made it, the faster it charged.
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You've heard of quantum computers.
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This is a quantum battery.
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By operating at a quantum scale, this battery juices up super fast in a super absorption event.
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And it gets weirder.
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The scientists who made this quantum battery, which is the very first, didn't even charge it with electricity.
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They charged it with light from a laser.
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It's that kind of breakthrough that could revolutionize how batteries get built and what they can even do.
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So how do quantum batteries work?
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And are they just a laboratory curiosity?
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Or might we someday see them in our phones and cars?
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I'm Matt Farrell.
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Welcome to Undecided.
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This video is brought to you by Micro Center.
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I talk a lot about the future batteries.
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Like a lot, a lot.
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But what I can say, battery talk just charges me up.
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But usually when I talk about the future batteries, I'm talking about changes to battery chemistry.
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Like the potential shift to solid state batteries, which is a shift we're still waiting on.
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Quantum batteries go further than chemistry.
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We're talking about a revolution in battery physics.
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A battery that charges more quickly the larger it is, is kind of the weird I can't leave alone.
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I mean, what's next?
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A car that goes more forward the faster it goes backwards?
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It kind of breaks my brain.
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Dr. James Kwok from Australia's National Science Agency, Cicero, built this proof-of-concept quantum battery with the help from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, or RMIT.
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It does a full battery cycle.
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It charges, stores energy, and it discharges.
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But that's where the normal battery behavior ends.
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Instead of juicing it up with electricity, researchers use what physicists call quantum effects to charge it in a flash using light from a laser.
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That sounds like the sci-fi dream of remote charging.
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Energy beamed in from a distance with no need for a cord or even a charging pad.
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Kwok told The Guardian, once the technology matures you would no longer need to stop your car at a petrol station to charge it up.
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You could charge it on the go.
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I don't know if that or some version of it will ever happen, but I do want to find out why a physicist thinks it could.
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To do that, we need to answer a simpler question.
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What exactly is a quantum battery?
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And how does it charge all at once?
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First off, we've got to clear up just what's meant by the quantum realm.
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The real one, not the one that the Marvel execs keep sending Paul Redd to.
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Down at the scale of the atomic and subatomic particles, things get very weird and the classic laws of physics aren't enough to explain what's happening.
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Those laws can tell you exactly how a ball will fall, but they can't predict what a single electron will do.
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For particles that small, we've got a whole other handbook called quantum mechanics.
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A quantum is the smallest whole unit that can interact like a single photon, which is a single quantum of light.
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In atoms, electrons gain or lose energy in whole units called quanta too.
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Hit an electron with a photon and the electron's energy climbs up a quantum or two, like taking steps up a ladder.
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The electron always lands with its foot on a specific rung, never in between.
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And there's something funny about the ways that quanta of light and matter behave.
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Instead of acting individually, they begin to behave collectively as a system.
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And these collective effects are why quantum batteries can charge faster when you add more storage units.
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That happens because the energy states in the storage units of quantum batteries are entangled.
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I think of entanglement like the synced up movements of dancers in a flash mob.
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If you know what one dancer is doing, you probably know the dance move of the next guy over.
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In a quantum battery, the energy levels of electrons can get synced up or entangled too.
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If one storage unit is jumping to a higher energy state, they probably all are in a super fast charging event.
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This is more than theory.
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Kwok demonstrated these collective effects in his first quantum half battery in 2022. Which half?
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The charging part.
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The fun with lasers.
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Before we talk about how we can charge a battery with just light, let's charge up today's sponsor, Micro Center.
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A quick confession, I'm an Apple guy, but I've been building PCs for decades and I still can't quit.
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My latest is a tiny gaming rig for the living room, hooked up to the big screen for my Steam library.
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For years, whenever I needed to part fast and cheap, Micro Center was my move.
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I practically lived at the Cambridge store.
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So I'm happy they're sponsoring this one.
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Their back to school deals event is on now and the deals are genuinely good.
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The link's in the description if you want to browse.
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Two store updates to Austin, Texas, you're finally getting a Micro Center.
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And don't worry, it stays open the whole time.
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For everything else tech, check out Micro Center News.
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All the links are in the description and thanks to Micro Center and to all of you for keeping this channel going.
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Ok, let's get back to charging batteries with light.
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Working with a team in Italy and the UK, Kwok used ultra-fast laser pulses to bump the battery's storage units
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from a low energy ground state to a higher energy excited state.
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The storage units were molecules of a dye called Lumogen F-Orange, which jumps from a low to high energy state as it absorbs photons.
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It sounds more delicious than it probably tastes.
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Although, actually, it looks like it tastes pretty good too.
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In theory, the more dye molecules you that you put into the battery, the faster it charges thanks to the collective effects.
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That's the exact theory Kwok's team set out to test.
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To build the battery, the team embedded dye molecules in a resin inside an optical cavity with special mirrors on the top
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and bottom that trap the photons inside.
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By testing different concentrations of the dye in the cavity, Kwok was able to show that charging sped up when more dye was packed in.
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Those orange or red lines?
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Well, they're super absorption, super fast charging, the exact payoff scientists hoped But the battery?
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It's tiny.
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How much energy did it even hold?
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We'll get to that.
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But even if it's small and very strange, this quantum battery does what a battery should.
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It charges, stores energy, and discharges electricity.
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To make it, they needed more than just an optical cavity.
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They needed a full battery sandwich with conductive layers that can convert stored energy into electrical current.
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I'm so hungry for lunch.
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I can swear that's lettuce, cheese, and ham in that sandwich.
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The middle bits are a dye called phthalo blue.
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Kwok's team switched to phthalo blue for this full quantum battery because its excited state is even longer lived.
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It lasts about 6 orders of magnitude longer than the pulse of light used to excite it.
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That's a million times longer, which sounds fantastic, until you find out just how long that charging pulse lasted.
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Here's the part the quantum scientists never predicted.
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Remember how the quantum battery charged faster as it got bigger?
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It discharged faster too, and the ability to push energy in
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or out super fast means these batteries could store a lot of energy and deliver a lot of power. Might.
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Someday. But today?
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A foam battery holds around 10 kJ of energy.
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This quantum battery prototype holds less than a nanojoule.
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It turns out there's an upper limit to how much dye they could pack into that optical cavity.
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Too much and the dye molecules stopped supercharging with their neighbors and started blocking each other in little quantum backyard disputes.
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But Kwok's team already has ideas for other dyes that might play better with others.
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Although the battery held its charge 6 orders of magnitude longer than it charged, we're talking about incredibly short timescales.
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The battery took femtoseconds to charge, that's quadrillionths of a second.
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And the energy was stored for just nanoseconds.
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That's not long enough for a proper telephone call.
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Unless, of course, you're talking about a telemarketer on the line.
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So we've got on the one hand the world's first full-cycle quantum battery.
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On the other, it holds hardly any energy for any length of time.
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I'm feeling Schroeder's experiment.
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I'm simultaneously in total awe and total...meh.
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But for a wild new battery design that was only proposed in 2012, the progress is impressive.
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One decade to prove the charge mechanism works and then just a few more years to build a whole actual battery.
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So how close are we to putting quantum batteries in an actual device?
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Kwok doesn't think quantum batteries are set to replace traditional batteries in everyday electronics anytime soon.
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He says the next steps are scaling up the battery size and lengthening the amount of time it holds on a charge.
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Obviously.
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One way researchers are looking to increase storage time is to stack materials, one that super absorbs light and another that can hang on to that energy for much longer.
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Quack's teammate James Hutchinson at the University of Melbourne told Live Science
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that he expects quantum batteries to one day have a higher energy density and greater durability than today's batteries, on top of super-fast charging.
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Whether they'll ever hold their charge long enough to be the battery in an EV is an open question.
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Again, obviously.
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Laser remote charging is surprisingly plowing ahead.
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Just last year we saw the US military's Advanced Research Agency
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use an infrared laser to beam energy to a spot more than 5 miles away.
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They transmitted 800 watts of electricity in under a minute to
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a receiver made of a solar panel at a distance of 8.6 kilometers.
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So as skeptical as I am that we'll be charging our drones or EVs on the go with lasers, we're kind of already on the way.
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Sometimes science advances slowly and sometimes it beams down out of thin air.
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But long before quantum batteries show up in cell phones or EVs again, if they ever do, we might see them in quantum computers and quantum sensors first.
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That's because quantum batteries could be built right into quantum computers and even entangled with the qubits that do the calculations.
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Yeah, like that.
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So is this the future of batteries?
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Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
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At the same time.
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But what do you think?
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You can also check out our extended cuts of many of my videos over on Patreon.
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If human-written and research videos matter to you, Patreon support helps a ton.
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The link's in the description if you'd like to join, but just watching, subscribing, and turning on notifications is awesome.
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And check out my follow-up podcast, Still to be Determined, where we'll keep this conversation going.
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Keep your mind open, stay curious, and I'll see you in the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 156 sentences and 2012 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:27. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 78% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- quantum /ˈkwɑntəm/ (noun) — The total amount of something; quantity.
- laser /ˈleɪzɚ/ (noun) — A device that produces a monochromatic, coherent beam of light.
- flash /flæʃ/ (verb) — To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
- electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/ (noun) — Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now…
- molecule /ˈmɑ.lɪ.kjul/ (noun) — The smallest particle of a specific element or compound that retains the chemical properties of that element or compound; two or more atoms held together by…
- cavity /ˈkæv.ɪt.i/ (noun) — A hollow area within the body.
- collective /kəˈlɛktɪv/ (adjective) — Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.
- scientist /ˈsaɪəntəst/ (noun) — One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research…
- beam /ˈbiːm/ (noun) — Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
- optical /ˈɑptɪkəl/ (adjective) — Of or relating to sight; visual.
- pulse /pʌls/ (noun) — A normally regular beat felt when arteries near the skin (for example, at the neck or wrist) are depressed, caused by the heart pumping blood through them; the…
- discharge /dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/ (verb) — To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
- researcher /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ (noun) — One who researches.
- electron /ɪˈlɛk.tɹɑn/ (noun) — The subatomic particle having a negative charge and orbiting the nucleus; the flow of electrons in a conductor constitutes electricity.
- remote /ɹəˈməʊt̞/ (adjective) — At a distance; disconnected.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- check out (verb) — To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
- find out (verb) — To discover, as by asking or investigating.
- clear up /klɪəˈɹʌp/ (verb) — To clarify, to correct a misconception.
- follow up (verb) — To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify.
- get back to (verb) — Return to (an activity)
- get on (verb) — To board or mount (something), especially a vehicle.
- go with (verb) — To choose or accept (a suggestion).
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 35 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/, lengthen /ˈlɛŋθən/, quadrillionth /kwɒdˈrɪl.i.ənθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: flash /flæʃ/, absorption /æbˈsɔɹp.ʃn̩/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, laboratory /ˈlæb(ə)ɹəˌtɔɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like quantum, laser, flash.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is brought · are entangled · was packed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | battery, which is · batteries, which is · photon, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.