In Marvel’s upcoming movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the heroes venture into the quantum realm. That is, the universe on scales smaller than atoms, where the normal laws of physics don’t apply. The technology may not exist for someone to shrink down to this size in real life. But Marvel did get one thing right: The quantum realm is a truly strange place.
For instance, quantum-sized objects can act like bits of matter or like waves. They can exist in more than one place at once. And specially linked, or entangled, quantum particles can mirror each other perfectly, even when they’re on opposite sides of the universe.
These rules of quantum physics may sound like magic tricks. But scientists have observed their effects in the lab. So researchers know that this is how matter and energy on the smallest scales actually behave. The question of why, though, remains one of the biggest mysteries in the universe.
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The quantum world is mind-bogglingly weird At the smallest scales, particles are ghostly and ill-behaved. No one understands them, but that doesn’t keep scientists from trying. (9/14/2017) Readability: 7.3
Birds could get their sense of direction from quantum physics Songbirds could detect north and south using a protein in their eye. It works somewhat like a compass. (7/15/2021) Readability: 6.1
Black holes might have a temperature Black holes may leak some radiation, due to quantum particles spontaneously blipping into existence at a black hole’s edge. (6/25/2019) Readability: 7.5