Science Magazine for Critical Thinkers
Science Magazine for Critical Thinkers
A recent experimental paper in Nature tries to show that large molecule-sized particles diffract like waves. Here is why I think not, and how this popularization falls short. I expect this to be difficult material for most of my friends, but I post here for the record.
This new beam-split test performed with gamma-rays defies the cherished idea in modern physics that energy is always emitted and absorbed quantized. These experiments were newly performed in many ways, with both matter and light. To maintain energy conservation, experiments show absorption must be continuous and only emission is quantized. Continuous absorption implies a pre-loaded state in matter that was not well understood. With no prior evidence defying quantized absorption, physics was stuck in this quantum paradox since 1905.