FQxI Podcast

Hawking claims to solve black hole paradox & quantum spookiness passes toughest loophole-free test yet; relativity could cause quantum collapse; 5 steps for saving the world; quantum thermodynamics; & the physics filmmaker.

Bohmian Rhapsody: Physicists Shelly Goldstein and Jean Bricmont discuss features of the deterministic alternative to standard quantum mechanics proposed by David Bohm. From the Quantum Foundations meeting in Erice, Italy, supported by COST.

Sean Carroll asks What Happens Inside the Wavefunction? From the 5th FQXi International Meeting.

Andrei Linde and Joao Magueijo on the BICEP2 discovery of primordial gravitational waves; using thermodynamics to explain the origin of gravity; & is quantum entanglement the fundamental glue that binds reality together?

2017 Physics Countdown Part 3: What was the biggest physics breakthrough of the year? FQXi's review, as chosen by quantum physicist Ian Durham, concludes.

Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek talks tests of the cosmological multiverse & lab experiments for quantum parallel universes; neutrinos shift personality; a proof for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle; & plants do math.

Questioning the parallel beliefs of quantum many-worlds supremo Everett; history of the Higgs with it's co-inventor Gerry Guralnik; quantum computing rewritten; & faster than light cosmology with Joao Magueijo.

Sean Carroll questions conventional wisdom on quantum fluctuations, whether we might be disembodied "Boltzmann Brains" floating through space & eternal inflation leading to a multiverse, in his talk at the 4th FQXi conference.

Photon experiments raise uncertainty about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle; the lowdown on FQXi's new $3 million Physics of Information grant round; casting the universe as a hologram to discover when time began; & art meets physics at the Jiggling...

Did the universe--the multiverse, the cyclic universe, & the "cosmic egg"--have a beginning?; tips for winning the FQXi essay contest; the quantum art of gravity & linguistics; sniffing out a quantum theory of smell; and we put *your* questions about...

Real numbers are not (ontologically) real, says Nicolas Gisin; living in a Sudoku Universe, with Emily Adlam; FQXi launches a new essay contest and large grant round, with Anthony Aguirre and Jan Wallaczek; & fine-tuning quantum theory, with Matt Leifer.

Remembering Stephen Hawking; light from the first stars in the universe, with Rennan Barkana; our place in the multiverse, with Eugene Lim; & setting up a science hostel in Maui, with Garrett Lisi.

Retrocausal reality with Ken Wharton; tips for FQXi's new essay contest; the Breakthrough prizes in physics; the science of terrorism, with Peter Byrne; & Carlo Rovelli gives a brief lesson on writing a physics bestseller.

How do we make decisions? Physicist Carlo Rovelli discusses the science behind choice -- arguing that agency is intimately tied to time's arrow. From the 6th FQXi meeting in Tuscany.

Diverting asteroids headed for Earth; how the Higgs could destroy the Universe; SQUID experiments create light from the quantum vacuum; & does photosynthesis in plants have quantum roots?

Taking particle physics to Ghana in our Higgs update; Julian Barbour explains why time does not exist, shapes are fundamental and the connection between consciousness and quantum gravity; and the psychology of mental time travel.

Gravitational waves from a neutron star collision; creating Majorana particles in the lab with Kang L. Wang; quantum Darwinism with Gerardo Adesso; & making a quantum replicant with Jayne Thompson.

Quantum Supremacy Milestone? Rumours abound that Google's quantum processor Sycamore has performed a task that would flummox the best classical computer — a first in quantum computing. Physicist Ian Durham assesses the claims, gives us a quantum...

An amped up version of the Schrodinger Cat Paradox spells trouble for all quantum interpretations -- according to its architect Renato Renner. He tells Zeeya and Brendan how the controversial thought experiment works, and why he thinks it is bad news for...

2018 Year in Physics Review Part 2: We conclude our countdown of the top physics stories of the year, as chosen by Ian Durham.