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Sean Carroll, however, doesn't like the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.

If that seems weird to you, welcome to the club. It's only the act of making a measurement - looking at the electron - that forces the particle to take on an existence at just one place. Carroll's book focuses on one of the basic most forms of quantum weirdness called "superposition." In the standard view of the field - called the Copenhagen interpretation - a quantum particle like an electron can be in many places at once. The problem with "interpreting" the equations lies in the many ways quantum mechanics violates our common sense about the world.

In the face of that dilemma, most physicists have chosen to ignore the problem by "shutting up and calculating," while a small handful have battled over quantum interpretations. But while physicists are experts at using the equations of quantum mechanics to make predictions or build things, they have no experimentally verified agreement about what those equations say about reality. Quantum mechanics, the study of molecules, atoms and even smaller stuff, is the theory behind computer technology and other modern miracles. What makes Carroll's new project so worthwhile, though, is that while he is most certainly choosing sides in the debate, he offers us a cogent, clear and compelling guide to the subject while letting his passion for the scientific questions shine through every page. That's the fraught territory best-selling author and physicist Sean Carroll dives into with his new book Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. But all too often over the last 100 years, this has been the case, as scientists have disagreed sharply over the meaning of their greatest and most potent theory known as quantum mechanics. While no one will be surprised to find these kinds of arguments playing out about immigration or the importance of NATO, finding it among staid physicists - and about the nature of physical reality - might not be so expected. It's hard to find any issue these days that people aren't ready to square off on, with sharp, snarky barbs. How?Įveryone knows we live in a partisan age.

Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Something Deeply Hidden Subtitle Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime Author Sean Carroll