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Quantum in context
An untapped resource could provide the magic needed for quantum computation — and perhaps even open the door to time travel.
Content about “ quantum mechanics
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How does quantum computing work?
Here's a brief introduction to the possible future of computing.
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Who's looking at you?
Observers are, of course, vital in physics: we test our theories by comparing them to our observations. But in cosmology, as Jim Hartle explains, we could be one of many possible observers in the Universe and knowing which one we are is vital in testing our theories.
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The curious case of the quantum arrow of time
Why does time have a direction?
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Why did nature choose quantum theory?
To create energy from information you would need to break the second law of thermodynamics — that's impossible in the real world, but could theories that do break it shed light on why nature is the way it is?
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Still struggling with chance
Are there objective chances in the world?
News story
Cyber experiments: The 2013 Nobel prize in chemistry
If chemistry makes you think of white lab coats and green liquids then think again. This year's Nobel prize goes to three researchers who "took chemical experiment into cyberspace".
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Let me take you down, cos we're going to ... quantum fields
You may have heard of quantum theory and you probably know what a field is. But what is quantum field theory? This article traces the development of quantum electrodynamics in the first half of the 20th century. Hair raising difficulties, heroic struggle and illustrious characters — this story has it all!
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Taming QED
This is the third article in our four-part series exploring quantum electrodynamics. After struggling with a theory plagued by unwieldy infinities an ingenious trick put QED back on track.
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Quantum pictures
This is the last article in a four-part series exploring quantum electrodynamics. After a breakthrough that tamed QED in theory, the stick-like drawings known as Feynman diagrams, policed by a young Freeman Dyson, made the theory useable.
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Operas, revolutions and nature's tricks: a conversation with Freeman Dyson
In February this year we were lucky enough to interview
Freeman Dyson at the Institute for Advanced Studies in
Princeton, USA. Dyson is now 89 and still does physics every day in
his first floor office at the Institute.
Here is an edited version of our interview that we hope conveys his
generous nature, wit and intellect.
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What is space?
Space is the stage on which physics happens. It's unaffected by what happens in it and it would still be there if everything in it disappeared. This is how we learn to think about space at school. But the idea is as novel as it is out-dated.