Alice and Bob in Quantumland
All the best stories begin with once upon a time. In science however, since time has a habit of speeding up, slowing down or even maybe going backwards locally, depending on how fast you are travelling, how much stuff surrounds you or your temperature; we will start at the beginning – wherever that is. Some time, long ago, Alice and Bob, two post-doc students, persuaded their friends Chloe and David to go for a ride in their black ford Anglia to nowhere in particular as long as it was a sunny day and they ended up on an enchanted island. All four were multi-disciplinary scientists in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Cosmology, Geology, Material Science and heaven knows what other branches besides including neuroscience and psychology. “To begin with,” began Alice “the first thing to remember is that atoms and molecules – all the stuff we’re made of – and all the matter we know about like the Earth, planets,stars and galaxies are far more intelligent than human beings. They’ve been around so much longer than we have and they’ve learned so much more during that time.” “That’s why” said Bob agreeing with her “we as scientists need models of scientific theory to explain how things work and make predictions which can then be tested. This is where theories have to be modified, falsified or verified otherwise you end up saying something is just because it is and having arguments.” “Let’s have a look in more detail then about those atoms and the description of their structure” interjected Chloe warming to the conversation. David on the other hand remained silent. This was boring basic science and he dozed off though earwigging at the same time.