Keith Schwab builds bridges. By most people's standards, they are very small bridges indeed: around 8 thousandths of a millimetre long and 200 millionths of a millimetre wide, visible only under a microscope. But to Schwab's eye, these objects are huge. That's because he is hoping to see them behave according to the rules of quantum mechanics -- rules that allow for bizarre, counterintuitive behaviour such as being in two places at once. Quantum mechanics is generally thought to govern objects such as individual atoms, not lumps of matter like these bridges, which contain tens of billions of atoms.

It is an ambitious goal. But Schwab, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, is one of several experimentalists seeking to probe one of the great conundrums of modern physics: the quantum--classical transition. Here, the fuzzy quantum world somehow gives way to the solid, definite certainties of the everyday 'classical' world as we go up the scale from atoms to apples. If these experiments manage to confirm current theories of this transition, they could turn long-standing preconceptions about quantum theory on their head.

Vowing to make New York City the center of the scientific universe -- as it is for commerce, art and expensive dining -- a panel of university presidents, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein of New York, the actor Alan Alda, the Columbia physicist Brian Greene and a Muppet announced plans on Wednesday for a World Science Festival to be held here at the end of May.

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From May 28 through June 1, festival organizers say, the canyons of the city will be alive with the sound of science. Biologists will discuss the perils and promises of humans' knowing their own genetic codes. Quantum physicists will debate the nature of reality. Neuroscientists will ponder the mysteries of creativity. The Abyssinian Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir will serenade scientists to demonstrate the effects of music on the brain.

The festival, the first of what is expected to be an annual event, is the brainchild of Dr. Greene, and his companion, Tracy Day, a former Emmy Award-winning television producer. They said they were concerned that the public was missing out on the excitement and relevance of science.

"The general public by and large doesn't connect with science in a significant way," Dr. Greene said, adding, "Science is inspirational, it's exciting, it can influence lives."

This will not be "fun" science, he said, "this is the real thing."

I love how they're not going to water this down.

And how they had a muppet.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany have created a tiny silicon cantilever arm on a chip that, after being cooled down to 0.0001 degrees above absolute zero, will sway back and forth in multiple modes at once, becoming the world's first macroscopic system in a purely quantum mechanical state.

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"Either you have a real, macroscopic object in a quantum state -- or you find out that quantum mechanics doesn't work for the macroscopic world," he said. "In either case, it would be quite fascinating."