Ron Cowen is a freelance journalist based in Silver Spring, Maryland, and author of the 2019 book Gravity’s Century. roncowen.com You can also searc

Why quantum theory is just like magic (and Einstein deserves more credit in this field than he gets)

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2024-10-28 21:00:06

Ron Cowen is a freelance journalist based in Silver Spring, Maryland, and author of the 2019 book Gravity’s Century. roncowen.com

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Alain Aspect’s unconventional training in quantum mechanics gave him an open mind — which led to his Nobel-winning discovery. Credit: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty

French physicist Alain Aspect is a pioneer in ‘quantum entanglement’ — connections between the quantum properties of subatomic particles that are preserved even at distances too great for signals to travel at light speed. He shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work, which underpins quantum computers and other technologies.

With his book on the foundations of quantum mechanics being released, Aspect, at the University of Paris-Saclay and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, tells Nature why he sees parallels between physics and magic, why Einstein doesn’t get all the credit he deserves and how there were two quantum revolutions, not one.