It's not quantum mechanics that's weird - it's us

Quantum theory is famously mind-boggling. But do its paradoxes mean we haven’t yet understood it?

Quantum mechanics is so notoriously difficult that Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman cheerfully admitted that even he didn’t understand it.

The reason is not that quantum theory is full of difficult maths, but that it defies intuition, and even, it seems, logic. Does this mean that we’re doomed forever to vague talk of wave-particle duality, uncertainty, Schrödinger’s cat and “spooky action at a distance”? Or has quantum mechanics moved on from these old clichés?

Thanks to improved experiments and fresh thinking about quantum theory, we can now say more clearly what it does and doesn’t mean. It’s not all about fuzziness and weirdness, but is a theory about information: about how, and how much, we can really find out about the fundamental ways the world behaves – and about where we fit into the picture. It’s time to go “beyond weird”.

Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00 p.m., the science writer Philip Ball will offer the talk "It’s not quantum mechanics that’s weird – It’s us" at the Club de Opinión Diario de Mallorca. Admission is free.

Philip Ball, physicist and chemist, was editor of the prestigious magazine Nature for more than 20 years, currently being the host of "Science Stories" on BBC Radio 4 and columnist for New Scientist, The Guardian and The New York Times, among others. From his books highlight "H2O: Biography of the water", "The musical instinct" and "Critical mass", winning work of the Aventis Prize granted by the Real Society of London to the best book of popular science in 2005.

In this talk Philip Ball will review some of the most relevant aspects of quantum mechanics, as well as some of its applications. The talk will be offered in English with the possibility of simultaneous translation into Spanish.