Researchers design new experiments to map and test the quantum realm Aheart surgeon doesn’t need to grasp quantum mechanics to perform successful operations. Even chemists don’t always need to know these fundamental principles to study chemical reactions. But the workings of the atomic and subatomic world is fundamental to our lives and for Kang-Kuen Ni, the Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Physics, exploring it is, like going into space, a quest to discover a vast and mysterious new realm. Today, much of quantum mechanics is explained by Schrödinger’s equation, a kind of master theory that governs the properties of everything on Earth. “Even though we know that, in principle, quantum mechanics governs everything,” Ni said, “to actually see it is difficult and to actually calculate it is near-impossible.”