My Blog

The Weighty Matter of Fermions and Bosons

Something surprised me greatly recently. I realised that what we have all been taught about fermions and bosons might be completely false.

Image (c) Mia Vedral

Entangled Tardigrades

Some creatures never say die. I’ve recently read an article about a bunch of tardigrades – aka “slow steppers”, in which the author described how tardigrades were sent to outer space attached to a rocket to test their robustness.

An artist’s impression of Neil Wormstrong (c) Mia Vedral

How Much of Mathematics is Really Just Physics?

I’d like to dedicate this short piece to my late friend Prof. Peter T. Landsberg, who was a “thermodynamicist” (this is how he liked to call himself). I used to meet him at the Athenaeum, in the good old days when smoking cigars was still allowed indoors.

The World Exists Only When No One is Looking

One particular misconception that is ever-present is captured by the statement that quantum physics suggests that “the moon is not there when nobody looks”. This is a riff on the old musings of Bishop Berkeley who asked whether a tree falling in the forest makes a sound if there is no one there to hear it.

A Nightmare of an Eminent Person: A Supporter of the Copenhagen Interpretation Goes to Hell

This is a story about a dear friend of mine, Professor Gustav Klimtovich, who is a world-leading researcher in theoretical quantum physics. Gustav has nightmares and he told me about his recent one involving Hell and the Devil…