3) The Disobedient Particle
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If you watch a pot of water it will never boil. Not true obviously, but this next finding is just as weird. Scientists in Texas were observing unstable uranium slowly decay. Radioactive decay is a well-known process which should, should be easy to predict and occur at a constant, measurable rate.
Of course, the physics gremlin couldn’t let this happen for ever. Something needed to be meddled with. What these Texan science dudes found was that when they watched the uranium, it stopped decaying. This is akin to watching a dead cat for a fortnight and preventing it from decaying into a fragrant pile of mush.
Obviously the Texans couldn’t believe that the simple act of watching the uranium halted its decay. So, they reported their findings to the wider scientific community and it turns out they weren’t alone. Their experiments were widely replicated and others found the same effect: certain particles defy physics if you stare at them. What?
This might not make much difference to you or I, but if the universe is hiding this from us, what else is it doing behind our backs?
