Scientists have finally solved the unanswerable paradox of the fate of Schrödinger’s Cat, shaking up previous understanding about quantum mechanics.

Schrödinger’s Cat is a famous thought experiment by [Austrian physicist] Erwin Schrödinger, in which a hypothetical cat inside a box with a poison is both alive and dead until the box is opened. Once opened, the quantum state is changed, forcing the cat to be dead or alive.

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It is used to illustrate the fact that, in quantum mechanics, particles behave unpredictably and tend to show ‘superposition,’ the ability for two states to exist simultaneously.

Yale researchers were able to predict a form of atomic behavior called a quantum jump - basically, the non-continuous and random change in a state when it is observed. They were able to reverse the jump in an experiment on an artificial atom.

In doing so, they have figured out a way to ‘save’ Schrödinger’s cat, by anticipating the jump in state and moving to save it. They have shown that jumps are not as random and abrupt as had previously been understood.

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“Our experiment shows that there’s more to the story,” study author Zlatko Minev told Gizmodo.

The experiment raises key questions about the nature of physics, and could lead to improvements in quantum computers.

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