Robert Krulwich

I understand it perfectly, of course, but I don't want to bore you with the details of his argument.

I'll say this.

According to Jim, it's not that the electrons in my left hand are repelling the electrons in my right hand.

It has to do with a law of nature that says two particles, identical particles, cannot be in the same place at the same time.

So when you hear that sound, you can hear it as the sound of a law saying, no, not allowed, not in nature.

Exactly.

But wait, isn't this law that we're announcing, isn't this law about particles?

Like we're talking about atoms and electrons.

Those are things.

So we're still talking about things.

According to Jim, a field is kind of like a stream of numbers.

Pure information.

Numbers that tell you where a particle, like an electron, might be.

So maybe the electron's over here.

Oh, no, no, maybe it's over there.

Or maybe it's with this group.

Or maybe it's with that group.

The problem is you can't ever see the thing itself.

You can only see the effect it has on other things.

So you can't observe it.