Can we correctly predict the flip of a fair coin more than half the time — or the decay of a single radioactive atom? Our intuition, based on a lifetime of experience, tells us that we cannot, as these are classic examples of what are known to be 50–50 guesses.
James D Stein graduated with a B A in Mathematics in 1962 from Yale and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967, having put himself through graduate school by working as a computer programmer. He taught for seven years at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and for 35 at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). After retiring from CSULB, he is currently teaching one course a semester (usually Multivariable Calculus or Differential Equations) at El Camino Community College. He is the author of approximately 40 research papers, most of which are in Banach spaces or fixed-point theory, and 10 books on mathematics and science written for the general public. Two of these books were selections of the Scientific American Book Club. His current areas of interest are probability theory and its application to problems of prediction. Some of the material in The Fate of Schrodinger's Cat deals with the problem of predicting the decay of a radioactive atom, and has appeared within the past two years in physics journals.