“EINSTEIN attacks quantum theory.” That was the headline in The New York Times on 4 May 1935. The world’s most well-known scientist and two collaborators had found what they noticed as a deadly flaw at the coronary heart of our best theory of nature. They had discovered that particles separated by kilometres appeared to have the ability to work together instantaneously with one another. Albert Einstein referred to as it “spooky action at a distance”.
Even although he had helped lay the foundations of quantum theory, Einstein felt it have to be lacking one thing. That spookiness simply didn’t really feel proper – there have to be one thing we weren’t seeing that would clarify it. No concept this unusual might be true, certainly?
We now know that it is. That is the lesson from most of the previous century of physics, as quantum theory, together with spooky motion at a distance, handed each experimental take a look at thrown at it. At the tiniest scales, actuality actually is as unusual as our greatest theory of the subatomic world suggests.
What we haven’t discovered is why quantum theory is so unusual. Physicists like me have lengthy been analyzing its foundations in search of solutions. Recently, these efforts have turned up a significant shock: a new speculation referred to as “almost quantum theory” that is even more odd than the original. What actually excites me is that we is likely to be on the cusp of placing it to the take a look at. If it passes, the newspapers can be reporting the scientific upset of the century.
Quantum theory offers with the subatomic world of particles, and it describes their behaviour with peerless accuracy. It is usually spoken of as …