Einstein Was Right: Space-Time Is Smooth, Not Foamy

[Speck Tater]

3. What about the Casimir Effect?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect

It's my understanding that the Casimir effect pretty conclusively proves the existence of virtual particles in the Quantum Foam.

And doesn't the tunnel diode, the keystone of model computer chips, depend on quantum tunneling which only happens if virtual pairs pop into and out of existence in the quantum foam?

And what about Hawking Radiation from black holes. Isn't that also a quantum foam, or tunneling effect? A pair of virtual particles pops into existence, one inside the event horizon and one outside. The outside one escapes becoming a real particle, thus causing mass to evaporate from the black hole.

As usual, fluff pieces written for general consumption oversimplify to the point of becoming silly.