David Kaiser in Physics Today – Hippies, Bell tests, and a Career Studying Quantum Entanglement

Professor David Kaiser has published an article in Physics Today.  Marking the hundredth anniversary of quantum mechanics, he writes about a group of maverick physicists who studied the foundations of quantum mechanics in the 1970’s and how their work helped him create a new test of entanglement.

“My fascination with quantum entanglement began in high school, when I stumbled upon a cheap paperback of physicist Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics. The book had first been published in 1975; by the time I found the copy in a used bookstore about a decade later, it had long since become an international bestseller. I was immediately captivated by the book’s discussion of bizarre-sounding features of quantum theory and the subtle dance of subatomic particles. Capra’s earnest discussions of various Eastern spiritual traditions—and what struck him as parallel suggestions, comparable to those from modern physics, about the nature of physical reality—left less of an impression on me. But few could miss his passion for quantum strangeness.”

During the 1970s, a group of offbeat Berkeley physicists began meeting to discuss foundational questions in physics, such as quantum entanglement, that were then considered passé. Pictured here are four members of the self-proclaimed Fundamental Fysiks Group. Standing, left to right, are Jack Sarfatti, Saul-Paul Sirag, and Nick Herbert; kneeling is Fred Alan Wolf.

(Photo courtesy of Fred Alan Wolf.)

You can read the full article here: http://disq.us/t/4u23onp