With its particles in two places at once, quantum theory strains our common sense notions of how the universe should work. But one group of physicists

Can we solve quantum theory’s biggest problem by redefining reality?

submited by

Style Pass

2024-09-19 12:00:06

With its particles in two places at once, quantum theory strains our common sense notions of how the universe should work. But one group of physicists says we can get reality back if we just redefine its foundations

As one of the original architects of quantum theory, perhaps our most successful scientific idea, you would think that Niels Bohr would have been interested in the nature of reality. The subjects of his studies were atoms, electrons, photons – the things we think of as the fundamental ingredients of the universe.

But for Bohr, reality was actually none of his business. “It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is,” he said in an often-repeated quote from the early days of quantum theory. “Physics concerns what we can say about nature.”

Though this distinction may sound pedantic, it can’t be dismissed when it comes to quantum physics. The picture this theory paints of the subatomic world is perplexing: particles can seemingly exist in two places at once, time stands still and there is no such thing as empty space. Can that really be what reality is like?