... could anyone explain to me the why, how, what not as pertains to atoms having electrons and these electrons seemingly jumping/disappearing then popping up again in an other location...? of course, this must be pretty elementary stuff, but humor me, please? =D

Electrons (and every other type of particle) have both wave-like and particle-like behavior. An electron travels from place to place like a wave, but interacts (is detected) like a particle.

 

Say a single electron is emitted from an electron gun It spreads out like a wave. Say we have a whole series of electron detectors spread out to detect this electron-wave. Only a single detector "clicks". That is only a single detector registers the location of the electron from that gun. And if we repeat the exact same experiment, we find the single electron experiment is not repeatable. Each time we do it, the electron can show up somewhere else.

 

No one can predict exactly which detector will detect the electron at any given time. Physicists can only predict the probability that the electron will be detected by a certain detector. Nature's inherent uncertainty limits us to only a statistical prediction.

 

And this single electron can interfere with itself. Why? Again because the electron travels like a wave. That is until it is detected. Then it is found as a local clump of energy.

 

 

 

 

I still like the theory from Michael Chrichton's Time Line. The particles are disappearing because they are traveling between dimensions on a quantum level. That would be awesome.