What is mass and why does it exist? Brian Cox, The Big Bang Machine, BBC 2008
The Higgs mechanism works by filling the universe with a field – a Higgs Field ... Particles acquire mass by interacting with the Higgs Field. ibid.
It’s a law of quantum physics that all fields must have an associated particle. ibid.
[Leon] Lederman called it the God Particle. ibid.
Building an instrument capable of recreating the early universe and finding the massive Higgs Boson has taken decades. ibid.
Here is evidence of a neutrino caught on film. ibid.
For some theorists finding nothing at the LHC is actually the most exciting prospect. ibid.
But if a black hole is extremely tiny, the laws of quantum mechanics merge with the laws of General Relativity. The Universe s2e2: Cosmic Holes, History 2007
The celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that if mini black holes exist then they must emit radiation, which has been called Hawking Radiation. It is believed that this radiation will cause a tiny black hole to evaporate, and potentially to disappear. Hawking gave mathematical evidence that showed that when a tiny black hole forms and then evaporates some of the information that went into the black hole never comes back out. This startling prediction caused a fire-storm amongst physicists. Because the laws of quantum theory insist that information can never be completely destroyed. ibid.
For decades scientists have been searching for one cohesive all-encompassing theory, one that would unite Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which explains how gravity works over long scales with Quantum Physics, the science of the tiniest matter. Together, these two great theories explain everything humanity knows so far about the cosmos. But, like a cartoon cat and mouse, they’re at war with one another. The Universe s3e2: Parallel Universes
The only thing that keeps people from walking through walls or falling through the floor is magnetism. Molecules and atoms are extremely small, and the space between atoms is extremely large. At an atomic level almost everything is made up of empty space. It’s not the atoms themselves but the magnetic field that makes matter solid, that keeps a person from walking through walls. The Universe s5e3: Magnetic Storms
To make sense of outer space they need to understand inner space. The Universe: Microscopic Universe s6e12
Quantum computers could transform the planet. ibid.
Uncertainty Principle: We simply cannot know anything with absolute certainty. ibid.
To make sense of outer space they need to understand inner space. The Universe s7e5: Microscopic Universe
Quantum computers could transform the planet. ibid.
Uncertainty Principle: We simply cannot know anything with absolute certainty. ibid.
Science has taught us to think the unthinkable. Because when nature is the guide – rather than a priori prejudices, hopes, fears or desires – we are forced out of our comfort zone. One by one, pillars of classical logic have fallen by the wayside as science progressed in the 20th century, from Einstein’s realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a million seemingly impossible things at once. Lawrence M Krauss
Every interpretation is completely ridiculous. Lawrence M Krauss
Nothing is not exactly what they thought it was. It was a little bit different – the Laws of Physics tell you even empty space is much more interesting than you thought it was: empty space is a boiling, bubbling brew of stuff that’s popping in and out of existence every second. And what’s more amazing is that we’re learning if you take just a bit of space and get rid of all the particles and all the radiation and everything, that it still weights something and we don’t understand why. Lawrence M Krauss, The Unebelievers, with Richard Dawkins, 2013
The barriers between quantum realities are breaking down. Other realities are emerging into our own. Star Trek: The Next Generation s7e11: Parallels, Data
And a new philosophy emerged called quantum physics, which suggests that the individual’s function is to inform and be informed. You really exist only when you’re in a field sharing and exchanging information. You create the realities you inhabit. Timothy Leary, Chaos & Cyber Culture
The more precise the measurement of position, the more imprecise the measurement of momentum, and vice versa. Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle
I remember discussions with Bohr which went through many hours till very late at night and ended almost in despair; and when at the end of the discussion I went alone for a walk in the neighbouring park I repeated to myself again and again the question – Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments? Werner Heisenberg
Can quantum mechanics represent the fact that an electron finds itself approximately in a given place and that it moves approximately with a given velocity, and can we make these approximations so close that they do not cause experimental difficulties? Werner Heisenberg
Our scientific work in physics consists in asking questions about nature in the language that we possess and trying to get an answer from experiment by the means at our disposal. In this way quantum theory reminds us, as Bohr has put it, of the old wisdom that when searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both players and spectators. It is understandable that in our scientific relation to nature our own activity becomes very important when we have to deal with parts of nature into which we can penetrate only by using the most elaborate tools. Werner Heisenberg, The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory 1958
There is a philosophy that says that if something is unobservable – unobservable in principle – it is not part of science. If there is no way to falsify or confirm a hypothesis, it belongs to the realm of metaphysical speculation, together with astrology and spiritualism. By that standard, most of the universe has no scientific reality – it’s just a figment of our imaginations. Leonard Susskind, The Black Hole War
A careful analysis of the process of observation in atomic physics has shown that the subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement. Erwin Schrodinger
The result of the single photon interference experiment is the strangest thing I know. It is conclusive evidence that reality does not consist of just a single universe. Because that result couldn’t have come about unless there were another nearby universe interfering with ours. David Deutsch, Oxford University
When we make the photon meet a tourmaline crystal, we are subjecting it to an observation. We are observing whether it is polarised parallel or perpendicular to the optic axis. The effect of making the observation is to force the photon entirely into the state of perpendicular polarisation. It has to make a sudden jump from being partly in each of these two states to being entirely in one or other of them. Which of the two states it will jump into cannot be predicted, but is governed only by probability laws. If it jumps into the perpendicular state it passes through the crystal and appears on the other side preserving this state of polarisation. Paul A M Dirac, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics 1930
There is in my opinion a great similarity between the problems provided by the mysterious behaviour of the atom and those provided by the present economic paradoxes confronting the world. Paul Dirac
Quantum physics is one of the hardest things to understand intuitively, because essentially the whole point is that our classical picture is wrong. Neil Turok
Quantum physics forms the foundation of chemistry, explaining how molecules are held together. It describes how real solids and materials behave and how electricity is conducted through them ... It enabled the development of transistors, integrated circuits, lasers, LEDs, digital cameras and all the modern gadgetry that surrounds us. Neil Turok
Quantum Mechanics has shown us a sub-atomic world that is fundamentally uncertain. David Spiegelhalter, Tails You Win: The Science of Chance, BBC 2012
There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature. Niels Bohr
Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. Niels Bohr, disputed quotation