Quantum physics is for everybody
4/8/202614 min
Subatomic particles, gravity wells and the beginning of the universe – these are difficult and mysterious concepts that are better understood with storytelling and metaphor. That’s exactly theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s tack in the new book The Edge of Space-Time: use metaphor and wonder to bridge the gap between people’s confusion and excitement with quantum physics.
In this episode we talk about Star Trek, how first year physics students are taught and how theoretical physics affects your everyday life.
Interested in more space science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:01
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Regina Barber· Host0:21
Hey, Short Wavers, Regina Barber here. Those of you who've been listening to this show for a while might already know I'm a huge Trekkie. One of my all-time favorite episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation that I wanna talk about is called "Darmok."
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:37
Captain's log, stardate 45047.2. The Enterprise is en route to the planet Lambda Alpha 12.
Regina Barber· Host0:41
In the Star Trek universe, most everyone in space can talk to each other with this futuristic technology called the universal translator. But in this episode, that translator, it fails.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:52
Rai and Jiri and Lunga.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein· Guest0:55
So Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise is stuck on a planet with an alien captain, Captain Dathon. And they are technically speaking what viewers would understand as English to each other, but the grammar and the sentences don't quite make sense.
Regina Barber· Host1:14
That's Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, another huge Trekkie and a theoretical physicist.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein· Guest1:20
It turns out that this alien species communicates through the figurative, so they communicate through stories and metaphor rather than directly