What on earth is quantum?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Listener Christine wants to understand one of the strangest phenomena in the universe. But to get to grips with it, she’ll need a crash course in the bizarre behaviour of the very small. Here, things don’t act the way you might expect — and it’s famously hard to wrap your head around.

Anand Jagatia has assembled some of the sharpest minds in the field and locked them in a studio. No one’s getting out until Christine and Anand know exactly what’s going on. Or at least, that’s the plan.

On hand to help are Kanta Dihal, lecturer in science communication at Imperial College London; James Millen, King’s Quantum Director at King’s College London; and particle physicist Harry Cliff from the University of Cambridge.

Prepare to enter the world of the very small—and the very weird—where particles can be in two places at once, influence each other across vast distances, and seem to decide what they are only when observed. Hear how these once-theoretical oddities are now driving a technological revolution, transforming everything from computing to communication.

Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Harrison Lewis Series Producer: Ben Motley

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.1	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.7	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs,
0:13.5	moments and movements, stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music
0:21.7	means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.5	We were, are and always will be right there at the centre of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now
0:31.3	or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music,
0:35.7	check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:46.9	You're listening to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service, the show that attempts to
0:51.9	disentangle the knotty complexities of our universe to answer
0:55.6	your science questions. I'm Ann Ann Jagatia, and every week our show starts with a question
1:01.6	from one of you. So let's meet this week's listener, Christine. Hello. How are you? I'm good,
1:08.1	thank you, and yourself. I'm really well. So where are you talking to us from?
1:12.2	I'm speaking to you from the border of Leicestershire and Derbyshire in the UK. Now, this week,
1:17.8	we're trying something a bit different. Christine is going to stay with us for the whole show.
1:22.7	That sounds good. Because what she's asking about is notoriously difficult to wrap your head around.
1:28.9	So my thinking is, if we keep Christine here until she gets it, maybe we've all got a chance
1:34.7	too.
1:35.7	Here's what she wants to know.
1:36.7	Well, my question is about quantum mechanics.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 1 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.