Why aren’t our everyday lives as ‘spooky’ as the quantum world?

Quantum physics has a reputation as strange – and indeed even ‘spooky’ – because it seems at odds with our everyday experience of the world. After all, we never come across objects that are entangled across distances, act as both particles and waves, or exist in two places at once. So why don’t the characteristics of the Universe that we know to exist at atomic and subatomic levels seem to ‘scale up’? As this BBC Ideas animation reveals, it’s a question that physicists are still trying to untangle, and has huge implications for the future of quantum theory. Featuring entertaining animations accompanying lively explanations by the US scientist and writer Adam Becker, the short takes a brief dive into the current crossroads of quantum physics, as well as looking at how scientists may endeavour to solve lingering questions about the quantum world and help move forward our understanding of the Universe.