Our world, our universe, with its strict rules of cause-and-effect — gravity, even relativity, all abide by a certain definable set of rules — has a parallel in what can only be called the profoundly alien nonhuman universe of quantum mechanics. The study of quanta, very small "packets" of energy, is resulting in the opening up of vistas weirder than anything the human imagination has ever devised. It is a place where 1 + 1 equals 2, 3, or sometimes does not compute at all. And yet it is real, and has real applications for our simpler world, applications that will inevitably change the way we live.

According to Einstein, quantum mechanics required entanglement — the idea that subatomic particles could become inextricably linked, and that a change to one such particle would instantly be reflected in its counterpart, even if a universe separated them. Einstein felt that if the quantum theory could produce such incredibly bizarre effects, then it had to be invalid. But new experiments both in the United States and Europe show not only that it does happen, but that it may lead to unbreakable codes, and even teleportation, perhaps in our lifetimes.…

Amir D. Aczel earned both his B.A. in mathematics and master of sciences degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. He is a professor at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. Among other books, he is the author of The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity (2000; U.K. and U.S. paperback to Simon & Schuster), God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity and the Expanding Universe (1999; paperback to Dell); and Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem (1996; paperback to Dell). His work has been translated into French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Turkish, Hebrew, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Finnish.