There are so many things we don’t yet understand about quantum physics, and it seems like the things we don’t get are far outpacing the things we do. A new experiment conducted at the University of Vienna demonstrates that perfectly. In it, cause and effect seem to swap places  – at least, from the point of view of a “traditional” world view.

The experiment involves two pairs of particles, either entangled or not. One person decides whether the particles are entangled, and a pair of people observes the particles to see if they are entangled. But the kicker: the measurement takes place before the decision, and it’s always accurate. The team doing the research calls it “quantum steering into the past,” which is kind of a nice way of saying that the world is an amazing, freaky place that we’ve probably been looking at all wrong this whole time.