Read Online Placebo by Steven James - Free Book Online

meditation chalet. It seems that whoever designed this place did his best to include everything a New Age devotee could want. One-stop shopping for spiritual seekers.
    And of course, there was the research facility on the west side of the campus, the one founded by Thomas Lawson and now run by Dr. Tanbyrn.
    The one we were heading to.
    We pass the prayer garden and Charlene rubs her chin. “We’re talking about subatomic particles, though, right? So how can a photon know the thoughts or intentions of the scientist observing it?”
    â€œThat’s a good question. Physicists don’t really have an answer to that.”
    â€œSo, according to quantum physics, reality as we know it doesn’t exist, and somehow subatomic particles can figure out when you’re looking at them and form into what you anticipate you’re going to see.”
    â€œPretty much.”
    â€œAnd no one knows why or how any of this works.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œScience sure has come a long way since Democritus.”
    Her hint of sarcasm isn’t lost on me. Actually, I’m on the same page. “And here’s something else: if you don’t know where a particle is, you need to understand that it could be in any of its possible states or locations and treat it that way.”
    â€œOkay.”
    We come to a looming stand of trees, dark pillars on the fringe of light from one of the ornate streetlights sporadically positioned along the path.
    â€œBut,” I go on, “you have to treat the particle as if it’s in every one of those—at the same time.”
    â€œBut it’s not.”
    â€œIt might be. Actually, it is.”
    â€œYou’re confusing me.”
    â€œWelcome to the club. And then you’ve got time and gravity and they basically muck everything up. With quantum states, there really is no past, present, or future. Physicists can’t understand why we’re not able to remember the future.”
    â€œAre you serious?”
    â€œYeah, and if you use quantum mechanics to do the calculations, gravity shouldn’t exist in the weak state that it does.”
    â€œHow’s gravity weak?”
    I pick up a stick. “See? Gravity should hold this down. I’m able to overcome the gravitational force of the entire planet.”
    â€œHuh. I never thought of it like that.”
    â€œGravity is the least understood force in nature and seems to be incompatible with quantum measurement, which has really bugged scientists for the last eighty years. And that brings us to superstring theory and the search for the grand unified theory—”
    â€œOkay, okay.” She’s beginning to sound exasperated. “But what does any of this have to do with the research they’re doing here?”
    â€œWell, from what I can tell, it’s related to how particles act when you separate them. They’re somehow connected, or entangled, in a way physicists can’t really explain.”
    â€œSurprise, surprise.”
    â€œRight, well, if you split a particle and do something to one of the halves—say, change the orientation of an electron—the other half will instantaneously respond the same way.”
    A pause. “Go on.”
    â€œAnd they do this even if they’re in different parts of the laboratory, or the planet, or the universe.”
    â€œThat doesn’t even make sense.”
    â€œNot when you think in terms of three or four dimensions, but the math of quantum mechanics leads physicists to postulate that there have to be at least nine or ten dimensions, probably eleven. As well as an infinite number of parallel universes.”
    â€œOf course. Parallel universes. Why not. And why stop at a few? An infinite number is so much more reasonable.”
    â€œMy thoughts exactly.”
    We pass the dining hall. The research facility isn’t far.
    Rather than have the sterile, institutional appearance of a hospital or