PARTICLE PHYSICS DILEMNA?
About 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 an actual particle, a photon, or alternatively some kind of electromagnetic wave. The experts 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...
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 exhibited by the particles 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!
It's as monumental as knowing that individual drops of water combine to produce the massive waves that hit the beach... but they disappear and become completely calm seas when you turn around to look!
Weird..
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 it has to be that way for our universe to actually exist and develop.
However, the scientist watching obviously can't see all possible futures coming true and therefore he can witness only one particular outcome.
The suggestion is that at the moment he begins watching he himself takes one particular timeline, but countless other versions of him are now watching all the other possible outcomes in their own universe!
Welcome to the universe where we spell dilemna with an N!
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 actual explanation is still waiting to be discovered!
WHAT'S YOUR THEORY??
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