I have been popularizing quantum physics, my area of research, for many years now.
The general public finds the topic fascinating and covers of books and magazines often draw on its mystery.
Dont worry, you dont need to know much about quantum physics to read this article.
I will mostly be explaining what quantum physics isnt, rather than what it is…
1.
Quantum physics is all about uncertainty
Wrong!
Quantum physics is probably the most precise scientific discipline ever devised by humankind.
It can predict certain properties with extreme accuracy, to 10 decimal places, which later experiments confirm exactly.
This myth originated partly in Werner Heisenbergsuncertainty principle.
Quantum physics cant be visualized.
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People often say that they can only be understood with mathematical equations and symbols.
And yet we physicists are always making representations of it when we teach and popularise it.
We use graphs, drawings, metaphors, projections, and many other devices.
But he then immediately added: I am going to tell you what nature behaves like.
Physicists do understand what theyre doing when theyre manipulating the quantum formalism.
They just need to adapt their intuitions to this new field and its inherent paradoxes.
Theories and concepts then emerged once again: duality, spin or superconductivity were introduced.
The highly productive back and forth exchanges between theory and practice are what physics is built on.
Experiments generally come first, except in very few cases.
Yet he wasnt against it and whats more, he created it!
Later, experiments on entanglement and violation ofBells theoremproved him wrong and showed the absence of hidden variables.
Indian-American Deepak Chopra is one of the most famous proponents of this approach.
He then purports to establish quantum relationships between mind, consciousness, matter, and the universe.
This is dishonest on two counts.
Lab experiments and daily living have shown its validity.
On the other hand, none of the phenomena described by these therapies or beliefs have any scientific basis.
Above all, words denote very precise meanings in quantum physics and they are entirely misused in these pseudo-sciences.
More cheating can be found when quantum properties are extrapolated to a human scale.
2012 Nobel PrizewinnerSerge Harocheproved this with his experiments.
Everyone can do as they wish, of course.
I would only ask people to refrain from pretending it has any scientific basis in quantum physics.
Any such claim is simply false.
This article byJulien Bobroff, Professor of Physics atUniversite Paris-Saclayis republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license.
