The universe is a haze of probability, not a series of certainties

Science · Published 23 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In our everyday world, objects occupy specific places at specific times. But at the subatomic level, the rules of reality shift. Quantum mechanics reveals a universe where particles exist in a haze of probability, governed by equations that are as simple as they are strange.

At the smallest scales, the universe behaves in ways that are often counterintuitive and bizarre compared to the macroscopic world. While classical mechanics describes the predictable movement of everyday objects, it ceases to be useful when applied to atoms, electrons, and photons. In the quantum realm, objects do not have definite positions; instead, they exist in a state of probability, where they have a specific chance of being at one point or another.

The foundation of this field was built between the late 1800s and 1930 by a collective of scientists rather than a single individual. A pivotal moment occurred in 1900 when German physicist Max Planck sought to explain why a 1,470-degree-Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius) light bulb filament glows red. He discovered that the equations used by Ludwig Boltzmann to describe gas behavior could explain the relationship between temperature and color, provided light was treated as discrete bits rather than a continuous wave.

This concept of discrete packets was initially controversial, as it contradicted the prevailing belief that light was a continuous wave. While Planck himself was initially skeptical of both atoms and discrete light bits, Albert Einstein provided a significant boost to the theory in 1905 with his paper on the emission and transformation of light. Today, these laws form the basis of our understanding of the molecular and submolecular realm.

Central to this beauty is the Schrödinger wave equation. Physicists, including Einstein, believed that the supreme goal of any theory is to represent the irreducible basic elements as simply as possible without losing the adequate representation of experience. The Schrödinger equation stands as a primary example of this pursuit: a simple, elegant formula that describes the fundamental behavior of the quantum world.

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