“What would happen if our bodies were smaller than dust?”
The endless challenges and explorations of scientists seeking to understand the quantum world.
The world of quantum mechanics: understanding the entire world through invisible atoms

As seen in cutting-edge scientific issues such as quantum computers and quantum cryptography, interest in quantum mechanics is gradually increasing.
However, it is still difficult to understand the strange and amazing concepts of quantum mechanics that occur in the microscopic world smaller than a speck of dust.
Quantum mechanics is an important discipline that has given birth to today's modern science, technology, and information and communication civilization by revealing the identity of quanta and the interactions between them.


《10 Teenagers Who Know Quantum Mechanics》 contains the stories of scientists from Max Planck to Einstein who boldly and challengingly conducted research, breaking away from existing physics stereotypes, in order to understand the quantum world.
By following their research process and achievements, we will help you understand the principles of quantum mechanics and understand them as a core concept for understanding ourselves, the world, and the universe.
In particular, by following the journey of a cute particle called 'quantum stone', you can clearly understand the previously hazy quantum world, making it an excellent introduction to quantum mechanics that is easy to understand.
It will also be a good opportunity to broaden the framework of scientific thinking by experiencing future scientific technologies that will be applied to quantum mechanics.

What is everything around us made of? That's right, atoms.
The properties of matter made up of atoms can only be accurately understood through quantum mechanics, which is the study of atoms.
The distinction between solids, liquids, and gases, conductors, semiconductors, and insulators is also possible through quantum mechanics. Why objects have color, how our eyes perceive that color, why greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming, and all other natural phenomena can only be seen and interpreted as they really are when viewed through the window of quantum mechanics.
This is the foundation upon which modern civilization was built today and serves as an important academic discipline that will open the way for the future.

---From the "Introductory Note"

Einstein is said to have explained the photoelectric effect by making the bold claim that light is a stream of particles.
Light energy is not continuous, but a discrete stream of particles! Since this revolutionary assertion, the world has taken on the appearance of a pointillist painting, with colorful dots forming the picture, rather than a watercolor painting created by a continuous flow of color.
Could this be described as a "pointillism of energy"? However, such a bold claim wasn't immediately accepted by the scientific community.
At the time, many people thought Einstein's claims were absurd.
Even Planck, who explained blackbody radiation based on the quantization of light energy, initially thought that Einstein's claim was wrong.

---「1.
From “The Darkness Cast Over Classical Physics”

Light, which has long been thought of as a wave, also behaves like a particle called a light particle.
Electrons (and atoms and other microscopic particles), which we thought were particles, also behave like waves.
That is, the existences of the microscopic world that we cannot see with the naked eye have the duality of being both waves and particles.
In the cartoon “Mazinger Z” that I enjoyed watching when I was young, there was a character named Count Asura.
He was an androgynous human, with half his face male and the other half female.
So when I turned my face, I looked like a woman on one side and a man on the other.
The particles of the microscopic world can be likened to beings similar to Count Asura.
Because in some situations it behaves as a wave, and in others as a particle.
But again, I emphasize that this ultimately means that we do not have the concepts or language to adequately describe the microscopic world.
I think that having to explain it as “wave and particle” is a desperate measure by humans who cannot intuitively feel the microscopic world.
---「3.
From “The Birth of Quantum Mechanics”

Ultimately, the energy level of a molecule is intricately intertwined with the energy of the electrons, the vibrational energy of the molecule, and the rotational energy of the molecule.
However, because this complex energy structure is different for each molecule, it can be used as a label for the molecule.
So, if we had a way to determine the energy structure of a specific molecule, no matter how far away in space, we could know what molecules exist without having to go there ourselves.
This is said to be one of the important methods used by astronomers to explore the universe.
---「5.
From Atoms to Matter

Everything in this world is made up of atoms and molecules made up of atoms combined together.
Let's say we develop a new drug that could be effective against a new disease.
How can we know the properties of the molecules that make up a drug? That's right.
We solve this by applying the Schrödinger equation introduced in the previous 4 chapters to the molecule.
Using the solution obtained in this way, we can find out the energy and movement of electrons in a molecule.
However, as the number of atoms that make up a molecule increases, the amount of calculations increases to a level that even modern supercomputers cannot handle.

This is where the advantages of quantum computers come into play.
Molecules behave according to quantum mechanical rules.
Quantum computers can directly implement various superposition states of electrons as qubits and can very effectively describe the movement of electrons in molecules.
Doesn't it seem almost obvious that molecules that follow the rules of quantum mechanics can be most naturally described only with a quantum computer? Therefore, I anticipate that quantum computers will play a significant role in research that effectively understands molecular properties and, through this, develops new drugs and energy materials.

---「6.
From "The Golden Age of Quantum"