Testing gravity's quantum nature

摘要

DESPITE decades of effort, a theory of quantum gravity is still out of our grasp. Now physicists have proposed an experiment to test whether gravity is quantum or not, thereby settling questions about the force's true nature. At present, general relativity, which describes what we perceive as gravity, and quantum mechanics are both needed to explain what takes place inside black holes and happened at the big bang. But the theories have proved incompatible, leading to apparent paradoxes and things like singularities, where the theories break down.