New Experiment Could Confirm the Fifth State of Matter in the Universe

The bit is a fundamental particle of a different sort: not just tiny but abstract—a binary digit, a flip-flop, a yes-or-no. It is insubstantial, yet as scientists finally come to understand information, they wonder whether it may be primary: more fundamental than matter itself. They suggest that the bit is the irreducible kernel and that informatio

The latest experiments in the field of quantum mechanics have rendered all but untenable the notion that there is anything objective at all.

An exciting modern idea is that space emerges out of quantum entanglement, rather than being a substance in its own right, so maybe there’s a sense in which relationalism will triumph in the end.

Information is increasingly seen by many philosophers and biologists, and even by some physicists, as the most basic building block of reality, more elementary than matter and energy.[1]

The double-slit study additionally raises questions about what “matter” really is. Our everyday human experience tells us that matter is easy to define: It is simply solid material that makes up the universe. My arm, which is made of many atoms of matter, certainly feels “solid” to me.