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Seven wonders of the quantum world

By Michael Brooks

5 May 2010

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Weirdest of the weird

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From undead cats to particles popping up out of nowhere, from watched pots not boiling – sometimes – to ghostly influences at a distance, quantum physics delights in demolishing our intuitions about how the world works. Michael Brooks tours the quantum effects that are guaranteed to boggle our minds.

1. Corpuscles and buckyballs

2. The Hamlet effect

3. Something for nothing

4. The Elitzur-Vaidman bomb tester

5. Spooky action at a distance

6. The field that isn’t there

7. Superfluids and supersolids

And finally: Nobody understands

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