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? READ MORE...
Was there ever any choice in the Universe being as it is? Albert Einstein could have been wondering about this when he remarked to mathematician Ernst Strauss: “What I’m really interested in is whether God could have made the world in a different way; that is, whether the necessity of logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all.”
US physicist James Hartle, who died earlier this year aged 83, made seminal contributions to this continuing debate. Early in the twentieth century, the advent of quantum theory seemed to have blown out of the water ideas from classical physics that the evolution of the Universe is ‘deterministic’.
Hartle contributed to a remarkable proposal that, if correct, completely reverses a conventional story about determinism’s rise with classical physics, and its subsequent fall with quantum theory. A quantum Universe might, in fact, be more deterministic than a classical one — and for all its apparent uncertainties, quantum theory might better explain why the Universe is the one it is, and not some other version. READ MORE...
In a groundbreaking announcement, physicists from University College London (UCL) have presented a radical theory that unifies the realms of gravity and quantum mechanics while preserving the classical concept of spacetime, as outlined by Einstein.
This innovative approach, detailed in two simultaneously published papers, challenges over a century of scientific consensus and proposes a revolutionary perspective on the fundamental nature of our universe.
Dichotomy in modern physics
Modern physics rests on two contradictory pillars: quantum theory, which rules the microscopic world, and Einstein’s theory of general relativity, explaining gravity through spacetime curvature. These theories, despite their individual successes, have remained irreconcilable, creating a significant rift in our understanding of the universe. READ MORE...
