Ball also separates fact from fiction, educating readers about the concepts that are not a part of
quantum theory, but have become synonymous with it, and are responsible for propagating misunderstandings about the theory.
This result may be just the beginning of many other related discoveries, since it opens up the possibility that other physical features of
quantum theory can be reproduced simply by requiring that the theory has a classical limit.
The premise of Penrose is that
quantum theory must be limited in its domain.
To now all of a sudden meekly submit to the difficulties we have encountered in interpreting
quantum theory, and sweep these essential questions under the rug by escaping into a positivist or instrumentalist position (as certain proponents of the Copenhagen interpretation have done), claiming that science is, and should have been all along, merely about predicting observational patterns; or even worse, to ignore the problem altogether and adopt a shut-up-and-calculate stance, does not satisfy us as natural philosophers.
Besides, it should be noted, however, that the
quantum theory of the atom by Bohr received in 1914 and its direct experimental confirmation in the famous experiments of German experimental physicists James Franck (1882-1964) and Gustav Hertz (1887-1975) for the detection of discrete excited states of a number of atoms (e.g., mercury Hg) and determining their ionization energy [2, 4, 6].
The experimental detection of dynamical space required generalisation of Maxwell's EM Theory, Schrodinger's
Quantum Theory and a corresponding generalisation of the Dirac
Quantum Theory [9], and the determination of a dynamical theory for space.
The researchers have exploited two different areas of physics: Einstein's special relativity - which interprets uniform motion between two objects moving at relative speeds - combined with the power of
quantum theory, the new physics of the sub-atomic world that Einstein famously dismissed as 'spooky'.
The "holy grail" for modern scientists is to unify Einstein's theory with modern
quantum theory.
This culture, in Smolin's telling, eschews the philosophical bent of Einstein and
quantum theory's founders, preferring the "shut up and calculate" attitude of later particle physicists.
Evolution,
quantum theory and Einstein's theory of relativity play a part.
Nevertheless, Einstein's initial insights, built upon the work of earlier scientists (notably Lorentz and Poincare), are taken as the beginning of modern cosmology, for, eleven years after the publication of his initial papers, his special theory of relativity would lead to the full formulation of his general theory of relativity, and his initial insights into the nature of matter and radiation--built especially upon the work of Max Planck, who asserted in 1900 that energy of radiation is produced in discrete little bundles, in direct proportion to the radiation's frequency (the famous E=hv equation)--would lead Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Dirac, and Fynmann to work out the
Quantum Theory, which in turn would change our perception of the physical world.