Updated monthly

Quantum Physics 101

The line between ‘fringe’ and ‘mainstream’ moves more than scientists like to admit. The Woo Index tracks the moves.

90-day trend
Live

Quantum Physics 101 is my running attempt to translate frontier physics into plain English without flattening the strangeness out of it. The dashboard tracks the experiments and papers that bear on the questions most people actually care about: what is consciousness, what is the observer, and what is real.

The members archive includes deeper explainers, paper walkthroughs, and live notes from the Mind Snacks episodes where I cover this material with working physicists.

Headline Metrics

Papers tracked

486

▲ +38 this month

Replicated key experiments

21

▲ +2

Open foundational questions

9

▲ +1 (retrocausality)

Plain-English explainers

47

▲ +3

Watchlist

What I’m tracking now

Delayed-choice experiments

Replicating

Two new labs reproduced the 2022 result. The implications are not subtle.

Orch-OR (microtubules)

Rising

From ‘fringe’ to ‘arguable.’ New evidence from anesthesia studies.

Measurement problem

Unresolved

Still the elephant. Every interpretation is a different metaphysics.

Quantum biology

Mainstreaming

Photosynthesis and bird navigation are now textbook. Smell next?

Recent Signals

What just moved

May 28, 2026

New retrocausality preprint

If it holds up, the arrow-of-time discussion has to be re-opened. Big if.

May 12, 2026

Anesthesia study published

Direct evidence of quantum effects in neural microtubules. Penrose-Hameroff camp claims vindication; skeptics push back hard.

Apr 30, 2026

Foundations conference recap

Many-worlds had a strong year. Pilot-wave is quietly resurgent.

Methodology Notes

  • I am not a physicist. I am a translator. Every claim on this page is sourced to a physicist who is.
  • If the math says one thing and the metaphor says another, trust the math. The metaphors are scaffolding.
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