The earliest images of an atom showed a nucleus (much like the sun) being orbited by electrons (much like the planets in orbit). This image then became obsolete as research continued, and it became obvious that it was impossible to predict the behavior of a quantum system, and that all one could ever do is calculate probabilities. Therefore the planetary ‘orbit' of the electron was replaced with a ‘smear'.

This then gave rise to the idea that quantum physics represented some kind of walled off enclave in the sciences where all of the laws of classical physics ‘break down' and can no longer be applied, for the world of the atom is a strange new world, it was said, with a strange physics all its own.

One way to understand the concept is to imagine a dart board hanging on a wall. A dart is hurled towards the dart board. Let's assume that it is ejected by some sort of spring loaded aiming device. Classical physics, given the correct information, could then predict where on the dart board the flying dart would strike (in much the same way that an object can be placed into a precise orbit above the earth, if the aim is correct, and so on).

However in quantum physics no such predictions can be made. As soon as the dart leaves the cannon, the atom uncertainty principle comes into play, and, we are told, all the laws of classical physics break down and we enter into a weird realm of random disorder. The result will be the production of a scatter graph, showing the surface of the dart board, with dots representing the possible impact point of the tossed dart. The points will be clustered nearest the most probable locations of the dart impact.

Let's assume that you charge up a glow in the dark toy with light and then enter into a dark closet to watch it discharge over a period of four or five minutes. Now suppose that you were a quantum scientist, and you were to choose one hundred atoms to monitor closely. Let's assume that the probability distribution states that out of one hundred atoms, fifty would emit a greenish photon within the first minute. If you were to choose any one atom it would be impossible to predict whether or not that one atom would emit a photon within the first minute. After the experiment was over, and repeated many times, you would notice that fifty atoms, on average, released photons in the first minute, as predicted, but you could never predict just which atom might be included among the fifty. You can only wait and see. This is the atom uncertainty principle. It is one of the most important foundational doctrines of quantum physics.

The discovery of the atom uncertainty principle led to the development of a certain philosophical system, in that this principle, it was said, was telling us something very profound about the nature of the universe, when examined at the very deepest level. We needed to question all our ideas concerning such things as ‘causality' (one thing following another in some sort of relationship) and now come to understand that the universe is basically a very disordered place full of random chaos which then produces the illusion of order that we perceive through a process of ‘emergent properties' (order arising out of meaningless and seemingly uncontrollable chaos). This then led to Albert Einstein's famous cranky response, ‘God does not play dice with the universe'.

What Einstein meant to say was that if you had the right equation, you could predict events in the quantum world. I am convinced that this is true, and that the atom uncertainty principle is not the foundation of some philosophical system purporting to describe ‘ultimate reality', but rather this atom uncertainty principle is an anthropocentric human projection onto the universe, and actually describes the state of quantum physics in the twentieth century more than it describes ‘the deepest reality of existence.' At the same time I cannot advocate Einstein's approach, because it is ridiculous, for to predict quantum events would require equations encapsulating quadrillions of variables, and that is just not a practical approach.

The controversy between Einstein and the quantum physicists remains of paramount important today, because it defines the way forward for science. Where do we go from here? We cannot recycle properly, because quantum physics does not yet allow it. We have mother nature's solar cell (the glow in the dark toy, which is both a solar collector and a built in battery storage device) but we have no decent solar cell technology, because quantum physics does not allow it. The atom uncertainty principle is responsible for this lack of progress in the field of quantum mechanics, and if this principle is false, then it must be challenged and it must be toppled from the pinnacle upon which it was placed in the last century. The future of science and the future of humanity depends upon arriving at the correct solution to this controversy. It is not just a debate about philosophy.

I am convinced that the correct way forward is to simplify the equations, by eliminating variables, and in this way by simplifying the environment, to eliminate all the random chaos that occurs in that environment (which is responsible for all this chaotic and unpredictable behavior that resembles gambling and dice throwing) it would then be possible to do things no one ever thought possible before. We must simplify the environment to allow atoms to exist in a tranquil state of undisturbed entropy. This means nullifying the effects of gravity, tiny though this might be. Atoms should be allowed to exist in a field without a gradient, absent the effects of relative momentum. Atoms should be undisturbed by outside environmental influences. We should simplify the problem by eliminating quadrillions of variables and thus create a stable, classical predictable controllable quantum system.

Now evidence has emerged that Einstein was correct, and that the quantum philosophers of the previous century were wrong. For the first time a classical atom has been created in a lab experiment. This means that the atom uncertainty principle has been tossed into the dust bucket of history, for it is now possible to predict exactly the state of an atom, and there is no need for those smears or those probability distributions. Physicists finally create 'textbook' atom.