Confirmed: Quantum mechanics is weird

LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP By entangling diamond-embedded electrons separated by 1.3 kilometers on the campus of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, scientists demonstrated that nature violates a bedrock principle of classical physics called locality.

Slagboom en Peters BV

By Andrew Grant

October 21, 2015 at 1:01 pm

A new experiment checks all the boxes in validating the weirdness of quantum physics. The first demonstration of a loophole-free Bell test, reported October 21 in Nature, confirms that particles coaxed into a state called entanglement share a relationship that cannot be explained by the physical laws that govern everyday life.

The study shows that an experimenter who measures the spin of an electron can effectively predict what the spin of the electron’s entangled partner will be when measured. That success persists even when both measurements are completed before a light-speed signal could travel between the particles, which violates a principle called locality.

Read the August 28 Science News coverage of the study for more detail about the experiment and how it reinforces decades’ worth of evidence about the quirky workings of the quantum world.