* Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment formulated by Nobel Prize–winning Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, which broadly states that the act of observing something changes it. To demonstrate this theory, Schrödinger placed a cat in a box with a hammer, a small amount of radioactive material that had only a fifty percent chance of decaying, poison, and a counter. The setup: If the counter detected the decaying of the radioactive material, it would emit radiation, causing the hammer to smash the poison, killing the cat. And quite simply, if the counter did not detect the radiation, it would not smash it, keeping the cat alive. The outcome: If an observer opened the box to view the experiment in process, it would be impossible to predict the cat’s natural outcome. As a result, the conclusion is that until the box is opened, the cat exists in a state of being both alive and dead.