The Age of Entanglement

When Quantum Physics Was Reborn

hardcover, 464 pages

Published Nov. 11, 2008 by Knopf, Brand: Knopf.

ISBN:
978-1-4000-4417-7
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4 stars (4 reviews)

A brilliantly original and richly illuminating exploration of entanglement, the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles—one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics.

In 1935, in what would become the most cited of all of his papers, Albert Einstein showed that quantum mechanics predicted such a correlation, which he dubbed “spooky action at a distance.” In that same year, Erwin Schrödinger christened this spooky correlation “entanglement.” Yet its existence wasn’t firmly established until 1964, in a groundbreaking paper by the Irish physicist John Bell. What happened during those years and what has happened since to refine the understanding of this phenomenon is the fascinating story told here.

We move from a coffee shop in Zurich, where Einstein and Max von Laue discuss the madness of quantum theory, to a bar in Brazil, as David Bohm and Richard Feynman chat over cervejas. We travel to the campuses of American universities—from …

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3 stars

Quantum mechanics and the phenomenon of entanglement, where particles that are created together or exist in close proximity have certain basic features (their quantum state) which either cannot be described independently of each other or do not exist independently of each other even if the particles become separated by an arbitrarily large distance, are very complex topics. I don't know if you can really learn any basic thing about them by reading this book.

The author has attempted to write a conceptual history of the idea of entanglement. She describes her technique in the preface, creating dialogues from the famous participants remembered spoken comments and their contemporary relevant written comments. The result is interesting, but much of it is not very closely related to her topic and, since it is mostly just mention of arguments among the discoverers/creators of quantum physics without the mathematics, it can be somewhat vacuous. Some …

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