The Universe requires quantum fields, not just quantum particles

The Universe requires quantum fields, not just quantum particles

Of all the revolutionary ideas that science has entertained, perhaps the most bizarre and counterintuitive one is the notion of quantum mechanics. Previously, scientists had assumed that the Universe was deterministic, in the sense that the laws of physics would enable you to predict with perfect accuracy how any system would evolve into the future. We assumed that our reductionist approach to the Universe — where we searched for the smallest co…