Only last month we had a design for a LEGO quantum computer and now comes a micro model of the Belle II experiment at the KEK particle-physics lab in Japan. The miniature brick version of the experiment, which was made in Germany by a team led by Torben Ferber at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is made from 75 pieces and apparently takes less than 10 minutes to build. Despite being small, the design still includes details of Belle II’s particle identification system as well as the iconic blue and yellow coloured octagon shape of the detector. Torban and colleagues have published a parts list and building instructions in case you get the urge to create your own model.
It seems like the University of Nottingham physicist Phil Moriarty is everywhere these days. In April, he reviewed a book about “quantum woo” for Physics World; and he also appears in this month’s Physics World Stories podcast pondering the question “Will AI chatbots replace physicists?”.
Moriarty is also a heavy-metal guitarist and he has joined forces with some fellow musicians to release a song and video about the antithesis of quantum woo: “Shut up and calculate”.
The phrase is attributed to the American physicist David Mermin and arose out of the vagueness that surrounds the definition of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. This interpretation of the quantum world has dominated physics since it was first developed in the 1920s by Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, working in the Danish capital.
While quantum mechanics is an incredibly successful theory, physicists continue to struggle with the bizarre and non-intuitive nature of the quantum world. Shut up and calculate became an almost pejorative response to attempts to find deeper philosophical meaning within quantum mechanics – an endeavour that did in some cases lead to quantum woo.
Today, however, some of the more mysterious aspects of quantum mechanics – including entanglement and superposition – form the basis of practical quantum technologies. Indeed, today physicists are more likely to say “shut up and contemplate” the wonders of the quantum world. Perhaps that could be Moriarty’s next song.