PARTICLE PHYSICS DILEMNA?
Almost 100 years ago, scientists discovered a strange phenomenon in the tiny, 'quantum' world of basic particles - the stuff from which everything around us is constructed, including ourselves.
It came about when scientists faced the dilemna of deciding whether light itself was actually a particle or alternatively some kind of electromagnetic wave. They were pretty much split down the middle with half arguing that the evidence for light being made from particles was overwhelming and the other half arguing the same for it being a wave.
Experiments were devised to try to determine once and for all who was right.
And that's where it got weird...
You can watch the video below for a fuller explanation, but in a nutshell they discovered that light is definitely made of particles... and definitely behaves as a wave...
That was weird enough but what freaked everyone out from that day to this is that the wave like behaviour can be made to cease by simply observing it... That means that whoever, or whatever, is watching the experiment can actually influence the end result - just by watching!
There are many theories for what is happening. One being that the light has an infinite number of possibilities as it shines outward and all possible futures are open to its progress. Perhaps that's the only way this universe can exist for it to have developed in the way it has.
However, the scientist watching obviously can't see all possible futures coming true and therefore he latches on to only one particular outcome.
The suggestion is that at the moment he begins watching he himself then sees that one particular outcome, but countless other versions of him are now watching all the other possible outcomes in their own universe!
That's an extreme theory of course, supported by some but ridiculed by many others. Some other theories are perhaps more plausible at present, but they are all still just theories and at any time a new discovery could easily overturn all current thinking.
Whatever the latest theory it's a fair bet that the ultimate truth is still out there!
WHAT'S YOUR THEORY??
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