Newtonian physics kind of just doesn't apply. The world that we think we live in is not the whole truth of the universe at all. Once we're looking at things at the quantum scale, like smaller than atoms, we can't predict things using precise cause and effect as we used to. At a certain level, maybe everything operates differently from what we thought,. exactly. So researchers start finding ways to apply their new understanding of atom to doing nuclear bombs.
In the 1920s, the scientist Werner Heisenberg came up with a wild idea that broke reality as Western science knew it. And it's still unsettling to think about. Benjamin Labatut's recent book, When We Cease to Understand the World, makes readers feel the aftershocks of the revelation, asking, "What's real?"
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