Science Pub - Living in a Quantum World January 14, 2010

Living in a Quantum World
With Michael Raymer and Steven van Enk
Come early if you want to order food and drinks and get a seat!

Atoms, electrons, and photons behave differently than do ordinary objects such as bicycles, tea bags, and muffins. Ordinary objects possess certain properties—color, shape, size, etc.—that always exist whether we are looking at them or not. But quantum physics tells us a very different story about the properties of quantum particles: unless we explicitly measure a property of an object, that property does not exist. We will explain the strange features of quantum physics by analogy: how would the world appear if ordinary objects behaved in the same way as quantum particles?

Michael Raymer, PhD, is the Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the physics department, and is a member of the Oregon Center for Optics at the University of Oregon. He is also the author of the book The Silicon Web: Physics for the Internet Age.

Steven van Enk, PhD, is a professor in the physics department, and is a member of the Oregon Center for Optics at the University of Oregon.

Major sponsor of Science Pub Eugene is Life Technologies

Co-presenters of Science Pub Eugene are OMSI, University of Oregon’s College of Arts & Sciences, and The Science Factory.

Questions? E-mail [email protected] or call 503.797.4517. Visit http://www.omsi.edu/sciencepubeugene for a description of upcoming topics.

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