Using abstract elastic membranes to learn about quantum measurements

The objectives of the Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies were summarized by his creator as: interdisciplinarity, construction of world views and broad dissemination of scientific knowledge. In compliance with the third of these objectives, we provide a rigorous but accessible popular science version of a research article published by Aerts and Sassoli de Bianchi (Ann Phys 351:975–1025, 2014), where an extended version of the quantum formalism was proposed as a possible solution to the measurement problem. We hope that through articles of this kind, written with an educational spirit and addressed to both academic and nonacademic readers, the interdisciplinary dialogue about foundational issues will be stimulated and the gap between the different sciences reduced.