Physicists Propose a 'Schrödinger's Virus’ Experiment

Physicists are going to see if a virus can be made to exist in two different physical states at once by subjecting it to the strange rules of the tiny subatomic realm. They propose an experiment similar to the famous ‘Schrödinger's cat’ thought puzzle, which illustrates how in the microscopic world of atoms and quarks, particles behave in a totally different way from objects in our everyday experience. In the case of the cat, when subject to these subatomic rules it could exist in two different states simultaneously (alive and dead). If these physicists are successful, they will be able to do the same thing for a living virus in the real world— a first in quantum physics.

Image: Frederic Poirot via Flickr; Dale Chihuly exhibit, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA