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Physics

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

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

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

4 September 2024

×îÐÂÂé¶¹ÊÓÆµ. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Ryan Wills; adboestock/Getty images

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…

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