What makes quantum physics special?

04 Oct 2025 in Blog

A brief tour through eighty years of answers (photo credit: one of the most popular images used to abstractly convey quantum physics. original author unknown)

Quantum physics is, at least by reputation, famously strange, counter-intuitive, and hard to understand. A quick internet search will turn up an endless scroll of quotes by eminent physicists saying this, so it must be true.

What is a phase of matter?

22 Feb 2025 in Blog

And why do you keep hearing that we’ve discovered a new one?

If you follow scientific announcements, there is a flavor of article that you’ve probably seen a few times: “Physicists discover/create a new phase/state of matter”. Most recently, Microsoft made such an announcement related to their quantum computing work: