What's the big idea?
BigScience.FM began as an experiment borne of a belief that the fundamental ideas that govern the Universe are simple. Fantastical, astonishing, often unbelievable, but ultimately simple.
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May 16, 2012
Niels Bohr once remarked that those who aren’t shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. This didn’t stop the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics asserting that until the certain characteristics of an object, such as its speed and it’s position in space, are measured, those characteristics don’t meaningfully exist.
As nuts as this sounds, most physicists have no problem with this interpretation. Or at least have become numb to just how weird its implications are. But what does all this actually mean? Is it possible for a cat to be simultaneously dead AND alive, as the Copenhagen interpretation suggests?
Our guests this week, physicists Terry Rudolph and Matt Pusey, have some ideas. Prepare to be shocked. Or possibly not.
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