Harry Potter lives in a universe where spells, wands, invisibility cloaks, and teleportation are part of everyday life. For the average muggle, like you and I, this world lies just out of reach. Or does it?
Atoms, photons, and subatomic particles, all things much smaller than our eye can see, behave in shocking and surprising ways. It is possible for for particles to pass (tunnel) through solid barriers, for a particle to be “two places at once”, and for the information in one atom to be teleported from one place to another. This is the quantum world that, until recently, remained unknown to us, but behaves in ways just as shocking as anything in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. As Mark Twain once said “The truth is stranger than fiction”.
Quantum physicist Krister Shalm and magician Dan Trommater team up to show how similar the worlds of Harry Potter and quantum physics really are. From invisibility cloaks to powerful computers Krister and Dan introduce some of the revolutionary future quantum technologies being developed; technologies that will bring us closer to some of the magic of Harry Potter.
Photo by Matthew McCarthy from The Record
“If Harry Potter’s school, Hogwarts, existed in the real world it might be something like the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, and that would make Krister Shalm a flesh and blood version of headmaster Albus Dumbledore.“
–CBC’s Ontario Morning
Media Coverage
- Quantum Physics and Harry Potter – The Waterloo Record
- It’s all about Harry and Quantum Mechanics – The Waterloo Chronicle
- Quantum physics: magic for muggles – The Imprint
- CBC’s Ontario Morning Radio Interview
Previous Shows
- Institute for Quantum Computing, July 14-15, 2011
- University of Toronto, February 26, 2010
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