“Dance of the Photons” by Anton Zeilinger
Science - 10 Minute Read
“Dance of the Photons: Einstein, Entanglement and Quantum Teleportation” is a book published in 2010 by Nobel Physics laureate, Anton Zeilinger. Zeilinger was awarded the Nobel Physics prize in 2022 for his work in quantum physics, particularly into the entanglement of photons and his experiments that violate Bell’s inequalities. These concepts are also the main premises for this book, where Zeilinger explores the quantum world and some of the “eerie” inner workings of the very small with his two fictional students, Alice and Bob.
The prologue of this book portrays a setting of the river Danube, specifically in Vienna, and the frameworks for what seems to be an important experiment in the field of quantum teleportation. Without any additional information, the intended effect is to leave the reader intrigued by the prospects of teleportation and as Zeilinger mentions, Einstein’s judgement of the concept as “spooky.” Though this did personally raise my curiosity, having come across terms such as “quantum teleportation” in other scientific works, this prologue may not have an intended effect on a reader completely fresh to the obscure concepts of quantum mechanics, rather possibly portraying the book as a daunting read.
Following the prologue, like many of the other science books that I have read, particularly those pertaining to a concept as complex as quantum mechanics, Zeilinger begins this book by providing a concrete introduction into precursive topics before diving into the intricate technicalities. Although most authors are able to deliver this preliminary information regarding quantum mechanics rather effectively, I believe that Zeilinger’s introduction was a particularly enlightening read. Zeilinger begins by outlining the framework for quantum mechanics as he mentions topics and ideas that are imperative for the reader to understand in order to appreciate some of the more complex concepts later in the book. Personally, I enjoyed Zeilinger’s description of the particle-wave duality of light, which transitioned well into his explanation of the “two-slit experiment,” one of the key demonstrations of the strange nature of quantum particles. Also, I found his writing on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle extremely enlightening, as it was a topic that I had believed to have somewhat understood from previous reading but soon realised that before Zeilinger’s explanation, I hadn’t been able to completely appreciate Uncertainty. This is seen for instance, when Zeilinger writes, “What does it mean to assume that the uncertainty principle is not just a limit to what we know, but that it describes how things actually are?”
Continuing on, Zeilinger then introduces two characters into the storyline, an unorthodox and in my opinion, much more engaging, approach, named Alice and Bob, taken after the lifeless variables “A” and “B.” This addition to the premise of the book makes it unique in its style and enables the reader to gain a more complete understanding of the topics discussed. In this book, both Alice and Bob are first-year university students who are carrying out experiments under the guidance of their mentor, professor Quatinger(an amusing play on the words “quantum” and German physicist Erwin Schrödinger). One of my favourite elements to the writing in this book is the way in which Zeilinger depicts Alice and Bob’s struggle to understand the strange nature of the quantum world and the multiple obstacles they face before finally arriving at a conclusion that, much to my liking, does not fully appease the characters but rather encourages further research, experimentation and learning. With these two characters incorporated into Zeilinger’s writing, the reader is able, at some level at least, to identify with Alice and Bob and their struggle to find solutions to problems that probably have the reader stumped as well.
In “Dance of the Photons,” Zeilinger focuses on one central experiment that Alice and Bob try to make sense of, a photon-entanglement experiment. The steep learning curve depicted by the two characters’ struggle is something that is shared by the reader. Similarly, when Alice and Bob finally make breakthroughs in their experiments, the reader too feels like they have found the solution to complex concepts. These solutions contained the key to understanding the inner workings of the central experiment, including the nature of quantum teleportation and entanglement, the latter of which, as Zeilinger mentions, Einstein dubbed as “a spooky action at a distance.” Furthermore, I enjoyed Zeilinger’s inclusion of a third character Charlie, a first-year psychology student who discusses Alice and Bob’s findings. Through their character dialogue the reader learns of the intimacy that quantum physics and its implications have with psychology and man’s whole understanding of being. Again, this is something that I had previously thought to have comprehended but after reading Zeilinger’s writing, I was able to fully admire the connection between the two fields of knowledge.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, Zeilinger ends the book on a rather anticlimactic note, with the building interest and reader’s investment into the ties that quantum physics has with our understanding of knowledge not being rewarded with a substantial revelation. Instead, Zeilinger ends by identifying some of the work and experiments that are currently being carried out to further deepen our knowledge of quantum entanglement which, albeit important to the near future of science, do not evoke a sense of profoundness within the reader. To Zeilinger’s credit however, he does touch upon the implications that quantum physics has in his chapter “What does it all mean,” where he reduces, or perhaps expands, all of the technical terms and mechanics into the concepts of information and reality, which he deems are inseparable but like space and time, which were unified through Einstein’s relativity, they too, in theory, can be unified. Zeilinger writes, “but what a future picture where these two notions are something like the two sides of the same coin looks like is wide open.”
Overall, I enjoyed Anton Zeilinger’s “Dance of the Photons” and his explanations of quantum entanglement and teleportation, particularly with his implementation of the amusing characters Alice and Bob. Although there are some limiting factors that keep this book from being one of the best pieces of science writing that I have read, I still think that Zeilinger’s work here offers a substantial starting point into not only the world of quantum physics, but into some of its finer, more intriguing and perhaps even “spookier” concepts.
