“Einstein attacks quantum theory” that headline new york times May 4, 1935. The world’s most famous scientist and two of his collaborators have discovered a fatal flaw at the heart of our greatest natural theory. They found that particles that are kilometers apart appear to be able to interact instantaneously. Albert Einstein called it “creepy action from afar.”
Einstein felt that something must be missing even though he helped lay the foundations of quantum theory. The creepiness just didn’t feel right. He must have seen nothing that could explain it. Don’t you think this strange thing could be true?
We now know it is. This is a lesson from most of the last century in physics, as quantum theory, including eerie action at great distances, passed all the experimental tests thrown at it. At the tiniest scale, reality is indeed strange, as our best theories about the subatomic world suggest.
What we don’t understand is why quantum theory is so strange. Recently, these efforts have come as a big surprise. A new hypothesis called “almost quantum theory” that is even stranger than the original hypothesis. What I’m really excited about is that we might be about to test it.
Quantum theory deals with the subatomic world of subatomic particles and describes the behavior of particles with unparalleled accuracy. …is often said.
