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[Edmond Dantès]

The Secrets of Quantum Physics

In this new series, physicist Jim Al-Khalili investigates the theory of quantum physics, asking if quantum mechanics can explain the greatest mysteries in biology. With a knack for making the very complicated sound understandable, Al-Khalili explains how the European robin navigates using quantum entanglement and why quantum mechanics even has a role in our sense of smell. He also recreates Bell’s Theorem – with shocking results.


Episode guide

Einstein's Nightmare - Episode 1 of 2

Professor Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of arguably the most important, accurate and yet perplexing scientific theory ever - quantum physics.

The story starts at the beginning of the 20th century with scientists trying to better understand how light bulbs work. This simple question led them deep into the hidden workings of matter, into the sub-atomic building blocks of the world around us. Here they discovered phenomena unlike any encountered before - a realm where things can be in many places at once, where chance and probability call the shots and where reality appears to only truly exist when we observe it.

Albert Einstein hated the idea that nature, at its most fundamental level, is governed by chance. Jim reveals how, in the 1930s, Einstein thought he'd found a fatal flaw in quantum physics because it implies that sub-atomic particles can communicate faster than light in defiance of the theory of relativity.

For thirty years his ideas were ignored. Then in the 1960s a brilliant scientist from Northern Ireland called John Bell showed there was a way to test if Einstein was right and quantum mechanics was actually mistaken. In a laboratory in Oxford, Jim repeats this critical experiment - does reality really exist or do we conjure it into existence by the act of observation.

Let There Be Life - Episode 2 of 2

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili routinely deals with the strangest subject in all of science - quantum physics, the astonishing and perplexing theory of sub-atomic particles. But now he's turning his attention to the world of nature. Can quantum mechanics explain the greatest mysteries in biology?

His first encounter is with the robin. This familiar little bird turns out to navigate using one of the most bizarre effects in physics - quantum entanglement, a process which seems to defy common sense. Even Albert Einstein himself could not believe it.

Jim finds that even the most personal of human experiences - our sense of smell - is touched by ethereal quantum vibrations. According to the latest experiments, it seems that our quantum noses are listening to smells. Jim then discovers that the most famous law of quantum physics - the uncertainty principle - is obeyed by plants and trees as they capture sunlight during the vital process of photosynthesis.

Finally, Jim asks if quantum physics might play a role in evolution. Could the strange laws of the sub-atomic world, which allow objects to tunnel through impassable barriers in defiance of common sense, effect the mechanism by which living species evolve?

Trailer

Link


Premieres

9 December 2014 on BBC Four HD.


A previous lecture by Jim Al-Khalili: How physics can revolutionise biology

Link

The Double Slit Experiment described by Jim

Link

Previous documentaries

• Light and Dark (2013)
• Order and Disorder (2012)
• The Hunt for Higgs (2012)
• Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (2011)

His previous publication on Quantum mechanics and a new publication

Further recommended reading

The most successful theory in all of science--and the basis of one third of our economy--says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe that physical reality is created by our observation of it? Physicists were forced to this conclusion, the quantum enigma, by what they observed in their laboratories.

Trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and found, to their embarrassment, that their theory intimately connects consciousness with the physical world. Quantum Enigma explores what that implies and why some founders of the theory became the foremost objectors to it. Schrödinger showed that it "absurdly" allowed a cat to be in a "superposition" simultaneously dead and alive. Einstein derided the theory's "spooky interactions." With Bell's Theorem, we now know Schrödinger's superpositions and Einstein's spooky interactions indeed exist.

Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all of this in non-technical terms with help from some fanciful stories and bits about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, with an emphasis on what is and what is not speculation.

Physics' encounter with consciousness is its skeleton in the closet. Because the authors open the closet and examine the skeleton, theirs is a controversial book. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is controversial.

Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing.

Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer a sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I completely missed any mention of this series, thanks! I'll be watching this, i like Jim's shows.

 

[7aged]

Cheers. Will watch

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Any time I ever see something with a title like Secrets of Quantum Physics, it makes me scared. I feel like I more frequently see new-age, metaphysics type videos than anything else. So I'm pretty relieved on seeing that this appears to be actual science. I'll check it out.

 

[markot]

Any time I ever see something with a title like Secrets of Quantum Physics, it makes me scared. I feel like I more frequently see new-age, metaphysics type videos than anything else. So I'm pretty relieved on seeing that this appears to be actual science. I'll check it out.

I blame Chopra, dude drops the word so much, when I hear quantum I start to think new age nonsense too. It's sad cause there is real science here, they just try to hijack it.

 

[Harlock]

This guy is very cool. Watch your documentary "Science and the Islam"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL41gX0fJng

 

[Himynameischris]

Subbed for later

 

[ced]

Cool, will download since the USA doesn't actually have science shows.

 

[block tower]

Any time I ever see something with a title like Secrets of Quantum Physics, it makes me scared. I feel like I more frequently see new-age, metaphysics type videos than anything else. So I'm pretty relieved on seeing that this appears to be actual science. I'll check it out.

same. i clicked on this thinking not this pseudo-spiritual shit again. glad its not that.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

I completely missed any mention of this series, thanks! I'll be watching this, i like Jim's shows.

Cheers. Will watch

Thanks.

Any time I ever see something with a title like Secrets of Quantum Physics, it makes me scared. I feel like I more frequently see new-age, metaphysics type videos than anything else. So I'm pretty relieved on seeing that this appears to be actual science. I'll check it out.

Jim's not one to indulge in such things. His documentaries are as good as you'll get on the BBC in terms of science content.

This guy is very cool. Watch your documentary "Science and the Islam"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL41gX0fJng

That is indeed a very accomplished documentary. Well worth watching.

 

[The Elite]

I look forward to watching this later.

Subscribed.

 

[Kurdel]

Smells like hot, hot bullshit to me, but will look into more just now.

Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing.

 

[Cyan]

does reality really exist or do we conjure it into existence by the act of observation.

:/

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Jim's not one to indulge in such things. His documentaries are as good as you'll get on the BBC in terms of science content.

Fantastic news. Thank you for this.

:/

I'll withhold judgement until I see it, even if that line is a little concerning.

 

[The Technomancer]

:/

Yeah....I'll give this a look though

 

[Pritchardo]

Jim has brilliant documentaries. Everyone should check out chemistry a volatile history, atom and everything and nothing.

 

[BocoDragon]

The double-slit experiment proves that if I think positively, money will flow into my life.

 

[Nivash]

Haven't seen it but I'm highly skeptical. Conventional understanding has it that quantum effects do not carry over beyond the quantum scale, and a physicist making claims about biology just reeks of an expert who can't stick to his area of expertise.

 

[Rodney McKay]

The double-slit experiment proves that if I think positively, money will flow into my life.

Quantum Entanglement proved that we're, like, all connected to the universe man.
These crystals I bought online are able to focus this connection and ease my joint pain.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

so it's a series about whether a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, if it makes an actual sound?

I thought we settled this with, yes, things can and do exist outside of our own observational limits. Quantum Physics has always been such a tediously boring subject, and it didn't help that all of my stoner and riff raff pals from yore also sat around watching What the Bleep Do We Know too often and babbling about that nonsense like it was matter of fact.

 

[thespot84]

so it's a series about whether a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, if it makes an actual sound?

I thought we settled this with, yes, things can and do exist outside of our own observational limits. Quantum Physics has always been such a tediously boring subject, and it didn't help that all of my stoner and riff raff pals from yore also sat around watching What the Bleep Do We Know too often and babbling about that nonsense like it was matter of fact.

Why do you consider QP boring?

 

[Rodney McKay]

Watched these episodes a while back and was... disappointed i guess?

It was well put together and informative, but the ending of the first episode was unsatisfying because it just told you how some of the weird things in quantum mechanics are true based on tests done, but then it doesn't explain any theories on why they might be true at the end.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't find it satisfying to be told that something is the way it is, and not be offered an explanation for WHY it is the way it is. I know there's not really one definitive scientific theory on some of the stuff talked about in the episode, but even just present a few different ideas would have helped.