Philip Ball

Contributing Writer

Latest Articles

Alchemy Arrives in a Burst of Light

September 30, 2020

Researchers have shown how to effectively transform one material into another using a finely shaped laser pulse.

Wormholes Reveal a Way to Manipulate Black Hole Information in the Lab

February 27, 2020

A proposal for building wormhole-connected black holes offers a way to probe the paradoxes of quantum information.

Quantum Darwinism, an Idea to Explain Objective Reality, Passes First Tests

July 22, 2019

Three experiments have vetted quantum Darwinism, a theory that explains how quantum possibilities can give rise to objective, classical reality.

The Quantum Theory That Peels Away the Mystery of Measurement

July 3, 2019

A recent test has confirmed the predictions of quantum trajectory theory.

Quantum Leaps, Long Assumed to Be Instantaneous, Take Time

June 5, 2019

An experiment caught a quantum system in the middle of a jump — something the originators of quantum mechanics assumed was impossible.

Neuroscience Readies for a Showdown Over Consciousness Ideas

March 6, 2019

To make headway on the mystery of consciousness, some researchers are trying a rigorous new way to test competing theories.

Mysterious Quantum Rule Reconstructed From Scratch

February 13, 2019

The new work promises to give researchers a better grip on the core mystery of quantum mechanics.

Why the Many-Worlds Interpretation Has Many Problems

October 18, 2018

The idea that the universe splits into multiple realities with every measurement has become an increasingly popular proposed solution to the mysteries of quantum mechanics. But this “many-worlds interpretation” is incoherent, Philip Ball argues in this adapted excerpt from his new book Beyond Weird.

Real-Life Schrödinger’s Cats Probe the Boundary of the Quantum World

June 25, 2018

Recent experiments have put relatively large objects into quantum states, illuminating the processes by which the ordinary world emerges out of the quantum one.