What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it. ... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does. - Richard Feynman, 1966

Of one thing I feel certain: this same technical progress which, in itself, might relieve mankind of the great part of the labor necessary to its subsistence, is the main cause of our present misery. Hence there are those who would in all seriousness forbid the introduction of technical improvements. This is obviously absurd. But how can we find a more rational way out of our dilemma? - Albert Einstein, 1934

Modern science has given us a variety of new ways to view the world we live in. I’m offering here eight concepts from modern science that I believe can give us new ways of viewing what’s happening in the world today. For lack of a better term, I call them “8 Facets of the Quantum World.” (Cue the choir...)

While I’ve broken things down into these 8 facets, it’s important to remember that these are all facets of one whole. One can no more pick and choose which facets to accept or agree with than one can choose to accept gravity but ignore time. As strange and unsettling as some of these concepts may seem, they reflect the current perspectives of modern science. (At least in so far as I can describe them.)

My goals here are to make these concepts relatively easy to grasp and to connect each concept with real world examples of how it might be applied to daily life. These two goals are reflected in the two quotes that start off each section: the first quote presents the scientific perspective, while the second quote hints at how that perspective might be applied to ourselves and the world around us. These quotes are followed by a brief statement of the concept, and then by two sections: “In The Lab” “and “In The World.” The former provides links to explanations of the science behind the concept, while the latter provides links to examples of its application to some aspect of the everyday world.

I would also note that the 8 facets are a purely arbitrary selection based on my own limited knowledge of these fields, as well as the desire to keep things simple for all involved. There may very well be other facets to the quantum world; sometimes, we just have to draw a line somewhere.

© Dave Higgins