When quantum theory first glimmered in 1900, the 45 United States of America had 144 miles of hard-surfaced roads, one telephone for every 13 homes and one bathtub for every seven. During that year, Walter Reed demonstrated that mosquitoes carried yellow fever, and this country suffered its first epidemic of bubonic plague; the average age at death in the U.S. was 47. Browning pistols and Brownie box cameras were introduced. China was torn by the Boxer Rebellion, and South Africa fought its Boer War. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin built his first dirigible.

The world has changed and accepted much since then, obviously. But has it learned to embrace quantum theory? The words can still induce panic attacks among the physics-challenged. Few nonscientists would even claim to understand what quantum mechanics is. Nevertheless, it has slowly gained at least some kind of broad cultural currency.

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