QUOTE
http://www.pureinsight.org/pi/index.php?news=1100
With the emergence of quantum mechanics, scientists have discovered that although electrons can be individually observed, they seem to interact with micro-particles at remote distances. Furthermore, they have the ability to simultaneously permeate everywhere, like water waves. Such a strange phenomenon has perplexed many scientists. These scientists, however, have stopped thinking about versatile electrons due to the successful application of quantum mechanics—something that has led the scientific mainstream to accept these phenomena. When today’s students study science, they are studying it as though there’s only one theorem: “It exists as such.” Only a very few scientists have thought about other issues. Among them, Einstein wondered what the world described by the formula of quantum mechanics would be like.
In 1957, a Ph.D. student first proposed what was later to be called the Theory of Many Worlds. His hypothesis stated that an electron actually coexists in many different worlds, and that we have only observed the electron’s manifestation is this world. At that time, the idea received little receptivity. Fortunately, a Nobel laureate supported the idea and helping it to spread afterwards. The laureate even helped the student further understand the theory.
With the emergence of quantum mechanics, scientists have discovered that although electrons can be individually observed, they seem to interact with micro-particles at remote distances. Furthermore, they have the ability to simultaneously permeate everywhere, like water waves. Such a strange phenomenon has perplexed many scientists. These scientists, however, have stopped thinking about versatile electrons due to the successful application of quantum mechanics—something that has led the scientific mainstream to accept these phenomena. When today’s students study science, they are studying it as though there’s only one theorem: “It exists as such.” Only a very few scientists have thought about other issues. Among them, Einstein wondered what the world described by the formula of quantum mechanics would be like.
In 1957, a Ph.D. student first proposed what was later to be called the Theory of Many Worlds. His hypothesis stated that an electron actually coexists in many different worlds, and that we have only observed the electron’s manifestation is this world. At that time, the idea received little receptivity. Fortunately, a Nobel laureate supported the idea and helping it to spread afterwards. The laureate even helped the student further understand the theory.
QUOTE
http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jun/cover...t:int=1&-C=
Then in 1909 a young British physicist named Geoffrey Ingram Taylor actually ran the experiment and witnessed the bizarre result. As the photons accumulate on the film, the same old interference pattern of alternating bright and dark stripes gradually appears, defying common sense. In this case, there is only one thing each photon can interact with—itself. The only way this pattern could form is if each photon passes through both slits at once and then interferes with its alternate self. It is as if a moviegoer exited a theater and found that his location on the sidewalk was determined by another version of himself that had left through a different exit and shoved him on the way out.
Since then, other researchers have repeated the experiment with electrons, atoms, even with relatively bulky molecules containing as many as 70 carbon atoms. The results never vary. Individual atoms and molecules go through both slits at once. Yet for some reason the laws of physics take away that ability for large objects like paper clips, people, and planets. “Something has got to go wrong with quantum mechanics somewhere,” Penrose says. “I regard this as a major problem that is going to require another revolution. But rather few people seem to agree with this viewpoint.”
When pressed, quantum theorists usually fall back on what is known as the Copenhagen interpretation.
The flaw in the Copenhagen interpretation is that it has no basis in theory—it is more like a story that scientists tell to make sense of facts that otherwise would seem nonsensical. It also suggests that the universe does not become fully real until someone observes it. Einstein found this idea abhorrent. “I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it,” he fumed in response to Bohr. Nevertheless, the Copenhagen interpretation was voted the preferred explanation of quantum weirdness by physicists at a conference in 1997.
Then in 1909 a young British physicist named Geoffrey Ingram Taylor actually ran the experiment and witnessed the bizarre result. As the photons accumulate on the film, the same old interference pattern of alternating bright and dark stripes gradually appears, defying common sense. In this case, there is only one thing each photon can interact with—itself. The only way this pattern could form is if each photon passes through both slits at once and then interferes with its alternate self. It is as if a moviegoer exited a theater and found that his location on the sidewalk was determined by another version of himself that had left through a different exit and shoved him on the way out.
Since then, other researchers have repeated the experiment with electrons, atoms, even with relatively bulky molecules containing as many as 70 carbon atoms. The results never vary. Individual atoms and molecules go through both slits at once. Yet for some reason the laws of physics take away that ability for large objects like paper clips, people, and planets. “Something has got to go wrong with quantum mechanics somewhere,” Penrose says. “I regard this as a major problem that is going to require another revolution. But rather few people seem to agree with this viewpoint.”
When pressed, quantum theorists usually fall back on what is known as the Copenhagen interpretation.
The flaw in the Copenhagen interpretation is that it has no basis in theory—it is more like a story that scientists tell to make sense of facts that otherwise would seem nonsensical. It also suggests that the universe does not become fully real until someone observes it. Einstein found this idea abhorrent. “I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it,” he fumed in response to Bohr. Nevertheless, the Copenhagen interpretation was voted the preferred explanation of quantum weirdness by physicists at a conference in 1997.






