The theory of quantum mechanics has transformed daily life since being proposed a century ago, yet how it works remains a mystery—and physicists are deeply divided about what is actually going on, a ...

You might say it all started with a spot of hay fever. In June 1925, a young physicist named Werner Heisenberg retreated to the barren island of Helgoland in the North Sea, seeking respite from his ...

John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis awarded Nobel Prize 2025 for discoveries driving quantum computing.

"God does not play dice." This famous remark by Albert Einstein critiqued the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. Paradoxically, his theory of relativity has become an essential tool for ...

In the strange world of quantum mechanics, objects can exist in several states at once. This concept, called superposition, is one of the most puzzling features of quantum theory. A particle, for ...

Mean-field theory and semiclassical methods constitute vital frameworks in contemporary quantum mechanics. By replacing the intricate web of particle interactions with an average or “mean” field, mean ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Two blind spots torture physicists: the birth of the universe and the center of a black hole. The former may feel like a moment in time ...