What is Quantum?

量子是什么?

Discovery

2026-01-06

26 分钟
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Quantum theory – our best understanding of the world at the smallest level – is famously weird and notoriously confusing. It’s a theory that seems to say particles can be in two places at once, or somehow “know” if you’re looking at them. Or at least, that’s what you might have heard. But is that really what quantum theory tells us about reality? To find out, presenter Marnie Chesterton travels to the birthplace of quantum theory: the remote, windswept island of Helgoland. Here, a century ago, a young scientist called Werner Heisenberg made a leap of understanding that laid the foundations of quantum mechanics, and changed the world. To mark a century of quantum, leading physicists from across the globe have gathered on Helgoland for a conference, and Marnie joins them with an unconventional plan. She’s allowed to ask them JUST ONE QUESTION, in the hope it can get to the heart of what this strange and difficult subject is really about: “What IS quantum?” Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Anand Jagatia Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jazz George
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  • My stomach is lurching around.

  • The rain is driving into my face.

  • There's people holding onto benches and dancing around the deck.

  • I don't know what the collective term is for a ferry full of physicists.

  • Hello, I'm Marnie Chesterton and I'm a science journalist.

  • Are you going to be sick?

  • Because I think I might be.

  • And that's my producer, Annand.

  • You're joining us at the start of a surreal journey we made this summer.

  • Pitching and lurching across the North Sea, surrounded by screaming quantum physicists.

  • People from every chapter of my life as a quantum scientist are here on a boat in a stormy ocean sailing to a random island in the middle of nowhere.

  • That island off the coast of Germany is called Helgerland.

  • It's a spot with an almost mythic status.

  • It's the birthplace a century ago of quantum theory.

  • There's something beautiful that we've made it to a hundred years of quantum science,

  • that the field has matured and evolved.

  • So for me, I mean, this is just a party.

  • It's more than just an anniversary party, though.

  • This is the chance for some of the greatest minds in the quantum world.

  • Yes,