Word: quantum
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...John Stewart Bell restated the problem as a simple mathematical proposition. A young physicist named John Clauser came upon Bell's theorem and realized that it opened the door to testing the two-photon problem in an experiment. Like Einstein, Clauser was bothered by the seemingly absurd implications of quantum mechanics. Says Clauser, now a research physicist at the University of California, Berkeley: "I had an opportunity to devise a test and see whether nature would choose quantum mechanics or reality as we know it." In his experiment, Clauser, assisted by Stuart Freedman, found a way of firing photons...
...outcome was clear: a change in one photon did alter the polarization of the other. In other words, nature chose quantum mechanics, showing that the two related photons could not be considered separate objects, but rather remained connected in some mysterious way. This experiment, argues physicist Henry Stapp of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, imposes new limits on what can be established about the nature of matter by proving that experiments can be influenced by events elsewhere in the universe...
Clauser's work pointed out once again that the rules of quantum mechanics do not mesh well with the laws of Newton and Einstein. But most physicists do not see the apparent disparity to be a major practical problem. Classical laws work perfectly well in explaining phenomena in the visible world -- the motion of a planet or the trajectory of a curveball -- and quantum theory does just as well when restricted to describing subatomic events like the flight of an electron...
...small band of physicists, including Clauser and Stapp, are disturbed by their profession's priorities, believing that the anomalies of quantum theory deserve much more investigation. Instead of chasing ever smaller particles with ever larger accelerators, some of these critics assert, physics should be moving in the opposite direction. Specifically, science needs to find out whether the elusiveness of the quantum world applies to objects larger than subatomic particles...
...Biology Department promptly launched a counterattack as head tutor Sye T. Plasm said of Physics, "Those weenies think they're so cool just because they study quantum mechanics. Whoop-de-friggin...