What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics

The untold story of the heretical thinkers who dared to question the nature of our quantum universe
Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments. As a result, questioning the status quo long meant professional ruin. And yet, from the 1920s to today, physicists like John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth.

• Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different
• Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
• Through Two Doors at Once: The Elegant Experiment That Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality
• Beyond Weird
• Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe
• Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
• The Order of Time
• Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Theory (Princeton Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy)
• The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality
• Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire: The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta (The MIT Press)