Quantum mechanics is arguably the most successful quantitative theory of nature. The theory is now 80 years old, and no violation of quantum mechanics has ever been detected in any laboratory despite a huge number of experimental tests involving light, atoms, molecules, and solids, as well as nuclei, electrons, and other subatomic particles. In fact, various experimental tests of quantum electrodynamics have achieved an astonishing agreement between measurement and quantum theory—on the order of one part in a billion. Not only is our modern intellectual description of reality entirely quantum mechanical in nature, our modern technology—exemplified by transistors, computer chips, lasers, superconductors, and magnetic storage—is based essentially on underlying quantum phenomena. Solid-state quantum phenomena, in which theory and experiment come together perfectly, have led to voltage standards through the Josephson effect and to resistance standards through the quantum Hall effect.
The recent advent of the concept of quantum computation has...
