ScienceEurope
Quantum mechanics
Nature turns out to be unpredictable at bottom
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Einstein never accepted the randomness — "God does not play dice" — and his objections led to experiments that eventually confirmed what he disputed. In practice quantum mechanics underlies the transistor, the laser, the MRI scanner and the LED; by some estimates a third of the economy in wealthy countries rests on it.
For children
At the scale of atoms, nature behaves quite unlike everyday life: particles can be in several places at once, and only probabilities can be calculated. The theory seems strange, but it is the most precisely tested one we have.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org