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QUANTUM mechanics is ultimately just a physical theory, albeit a hugely successful one. It precisely and accurately describes the way things behave at the smallest scales. Yet the word “quantum” is supremely evocative. The infinitesimal realm of subatomic particles and forces it brings to mind has a reputation for strangeness – a place that mere mortals fear to tread, never mind understand.
We are told that particles are fields and vice versa, that uncertainty reigns and that wave functions collapse vague clouds of probabilities to manifest the distilled reality we know. It can be tempting, in the face of such…
