Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories in science ' and makes much of modern life possible. Technologies ranging from computer chips to medical-imaging machines rely on the application of equations, first sketched out a century ago, that describe the behaviour of objects at the microscopic scale. At an event to mark the 100th anniversary of quantum mechanics last month, lauded specialists in quantum physics argued politely ' but firmly ' about the issue. 'There is no quantum world,' said physicist Anton Zeilinger, at the University of Vienna, outlining his view that quantum states exist only in his head and that they describe information, rather than reality. 'I disagree,' replied Alain Aspect, a physicist at the University of Paris-Saclay, who shared the 2022 Nobel prize with Zeilinger for work on quantum phenomena. To gain a snapshot of how the wider community interprets quantum physics in its centenary year, Nature carried out the largest ever survey on the...
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