Quanto Mechanics - The Hard One

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Quanto mechanics described the world as it was a black box. The theory tells us what happened moment by moment, knowing that we can anticipate what we're going to see if we look later on. That's not the case in quanto mechanics. So the theory is formulated in terms of what we observe, and not in terms ofwhat happens. And that's a mystery. I should hav reacted to that saying, this is witchcraft calculation. This is actually the way we use the theory to day, always.

It has been more than a century since the groundwork of quantum physics was first formulated and yet the consequences of the theory still elude both scientists and philosophers. Why does light sometimes behave as a wave, and other times as a particle? Why does the outcome of an experiment apparently depend on whether the particles are being observed or not? In the first of two episodes, Ian Sample sits down with the physicist Carlo Rovelli to discuss the strange consequences of quantum theory and the explanation he sets out in his book Helgoland. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod