This book explains, in simple terms, with a minimum of mathematics, why things can appear to be in two places at the same time, why correlations between simultaneous events occurring far apart cannot be explained by local mechanisms, and why, nevertheless, the quantum theory can be understood in terms of matter in motion. No need to worry, as some people do, whether a cat can be both dead and alive, whether the moon is there when nobody looks at it, or whether quantum systems need an observer to acquire definite properties. The author's inimitable and even humorous style makes the book a pleasure to read while bringing a new clarity to many of the longstanding puzzles of quantum physics.

Autorentext

Jean Bricmont is a theoretical physicist and professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain. He works on statistical and mathematical physics. He is best known outside the academic world as the co-author, with Alan Sokal, of Fashionable Nonsense (also known as Intellectual Impostures), which criticizes abuses of scientific concepts by intellectuals and relativism in the philosophy of science.

Inhalt

Physicists in Wonderland.- The First Mystery: Interference and Superpositions.- "Philosophical" Intermezzo.- The Second Mystery: Nonlocality.- The de Broglie-Bohm Theory.- Are There any Alternative Theories?.- Revisiting the History of Quantum Mechanics.- Quantum Mechanics and Our "Culture".