

9 years ago
1
[Novel] Experiment [again] confirms quantum theory weirdness
The bizarre nature of reality as laid out by quantum theory has survived another test, with scientists performing a famous experiment and proving that reality does not exist until it is measured. Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted John Wheeler's delayed-choice thought experiment, which involves a moving object that is given the choice to act like a particle or a wave. Wheeler's experiment then asks - at which point does the object decide?
Continue Reading
-
More Quantum Weirdness. By Steven Novella
What scientific understanding gets distilled down to the public consciousness is important, and that is one of the primary missions of good science news reporting. What is the bottom line, “take-home” message that the average person should walk away with... -
A Private View of Quantum Reality
Quantum theorist Christopher Fuchs explains how to solve the paradoxes of quantum mechanics. His price: physics gets personal. -
Donald Hoffman: Do we see reality as it is?
Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman is trying to answer a big question: Do we experience the world as it really is ... or as we need it to be? In this ever so slightly mind-blowing talk, he ponders how our minds construct reality for us. -
And the Winner is... Many-Worlds! By Eliezer Yudkowsky
Macroscopic quantum superpositions, a.k.a. the "many-worlds interpretation" or MWI, was proposed in 1957 and brought to the general attention of the scientific community in 1970. Ever since, MWI has steadily gained in popularity... (2008)
Additional Contributions:
Join the Discussion
There's no area of science I enjoy as much as quantum mechanics. I was watching a Feyman lecture on it yesterday, and the accuracy of the field is really incredible. Somewhere around the 13 minute mark, he comments that the agreement of the theory of quantum with experiments, even back in the mid 70s, is on the order of 10^-10. That's like someone offering to measure the distance between you and the moon, and giving you the correct answer to within about 8 inches.