A new science age dawns

The growing popularity of quantum mechanics among the younger generation is a formula for success, Mei Jia reports.

It's a cat but not as we know it. It does not chase mice or purr. Nor does it drink milk. It does, though, pose a problem. Or at least one in particular does. We have Austrian physicist Erwin Schroedinger to thank for this. This is the quandary he posed in 1935.

A cat is put in a box along with a Geiger counter, a vial of poison, a hammer, and a radioactive substance. The radioactive substance decays, the Geiger detects it and triggers the hammer to release the poison. This kills the cat. The radioactive decay is a random process, and there is no way to predict when it will happen. Physicists say this is superposition. We don't know at which point the cat is alive or dead.

Schroedinger describes this as "living and dead ... in equal parts "until one state or another is confirmed. This, in essence is what quantum mechanics deals with. Classical mechanics deal with everyday size and speed, specific time and space. This certainty is replaced in quantum mechanics by probability. And a new age of understanding this science is about to dawn in China, or to be exact the science says it is probable.