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Science 19 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5934, pp. 1512 - 1513
DOI: 10.1126/science.324_1512
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News Focus

Physics:

Is Quantum Mechanics Tried, True, Wildly Successful, and Wrong?

Tim Folger*

Antony Valentini, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London and the co-author of a forthcoming book on the early history of quantum mechanics, believes that shortly after the theory's birth some 80 years ago, a cadre of influential scientists led quantum physics down a philosophical blind alley. As a result of that wrong turn, Valentini says, the field wound up burdened with paradoxical dualities, inexplicable long-distance connections between particles, and a pragmatic "shut up and calculate" mentality that stifled attempts to probe what it all means. But there is an alternative, Valentini says: a long-abandoned "road not taken" that could get physics back on track. And unlike other proposed remedies to quantum weirdness, he adds, there's a possible experiment to test whether this one is right.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)