Natalie Nicklin

QUANTUM mechanics is often called a theory of the very small. In reality, it explains phenomena on a vast range of scales – from elementary particles and their interactions, through atoms and molecules, all the way to neutron stars and the supernovae that spawn them. So far, essentially all its predictions have been confirmed by experiments. It is the most successful theory of material reality we have ever had.

So why have so many physicists, from Albert Einstein onwards, taken the view that quantum theory is wrong?

The reasons lie in its mysterious nature, in the phenomena it doesn’t explain and the answers it doesn’t give. That is reason enough to seek what might lie beyond it. I believe we already have the outline of what this deeper answer looks like. We are only at the start of this work, but by digging down into the fundamental principles that underlie reality, and weeding out what is right and what is wrong about our current ideas, we can see glimpses of a truly unifying picture of physics. It comes at a price: to go beyond quantum, we must totally upend long-held ideas of how the universe hangs together.

CERN and Mont Blanc: Explore particle physics and glaciers in Switzerland on a New Scientist Discovery Tour

It is easy to state the basic problem of quantum mechanics as a theory of reality: it doesn’t tell us what is happening in reality. It has two different laws to describe how things and events evolve. The first applies most of the time, and describes quantum objects as wave-like entities embodied in a mathematical …