FQxI Physics

In the first of a series of short documentaries from FQxI, Professor Natalia Ares shows us her research at Oxford University that uses carbon nanotube machines to investigate how we can use information as a fuel.⁠ @NAresgroup @geoffreylondon ⁠ qspace.fqxi.org/videos/246/inf… ⁠ #FQxI

there’s actually a fun backstory to this: the owner of this cat, a physicist, had written a paper using “we,” but the journal wouldn’t allow plural pronouns for a single author, so rather than retyping the whole manuscript (on a typewriter), he just added his cat as a co-author

Happy Pi Day! We made a short animation tracing how humans have tried to pin down π over the last 4,000 years. It's been quite the ride... and we're still no closer to the last digit 😉 #PiDay #PiDay2026 #Pi #Mathematics #ScienceCommunication

This work was partially supported by FQxI through our Consciousness in the Physical World programme. Lead image credit: Catalina Curceanu (2026). eurekalert.org/news-releases/… @SciReports @INFN_

THREAD:

Congrats to Gerard McCaul, 2nd place winner of our "How Quantum Is Life?" essay competition for his essay "Spanspermia: Does Life Come from Outer Hilbert Space?" Gerard argues (with a lot of force and no small amount of wit) that life is not meaningfully quantum at the biological scale. Instead, he makes the case that the real power lies in linear algebra: the same mathematical framework behind quantum theory, but one that works all the way up through neural networks, AI, and the organization of living systems. It was a sharp skeptical entry in the competition, and it earned its place. Read Gerard's essay here: qspace.fqxi.org/competitions/w…

Nerd joke... Einstein, Newton and Pascal are playing a rousing game of hide and seek. Einstein begins to count to ten. Pascal runs and hides. Newton draws a one-meter by one-meter square in the ground in front of Einstein, then stands in the middle of it. Einstein reaches ten, uncovers his eyes, and exclaims, “Newton! I found you! You’re it!” Newton replies, “You didn't find me. You found a Newton over a square meter. You found Pascal!”

We are really saddened by the recent passing of Sir Anthony Leggett, FQxI member and winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids. He was 87. Leggett began his academic career studying classics at Oxford before switching to physics. His theoretical work on superfluid helium-3 transformed our understanding of how quantum mechanics operates at the macroscopic scale, and directly inspired the experiments recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. Photo: Leggett lecturing about Schrödinger's cat at the Loomis Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, c. 1985. Courtesy of the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, American Institute of Physics.

RIP Tony Leggett, Nobel laureate and theoretical physicist, dies – News Bureau news.illinois.edu/tony-leggett-n…

Read the full essay at qspace.fqxi.org/competitions/w…

Congrats to Samuel Morriss, joint 1st place winner of our "How Quantum Is Life?" essay competition for his essay "How Quantum is the Skin?" Samuel is a medical doctor based in Melbourne, Australia. We reached out to Samuel after he won and he told us that "working at the interface between people and their environment in dermatology led me to wonder how quantum mechanics shapes the skin's interactions with light." "What excites me most about quantum biology is its potential to expand medicine beyond classical models, revealing fundamental nanoscale processes that may inform better photoprotection and targeted therapies."

Eight books from scientists connected to FQxI. @skdh @JannaLevin @ProfSaraSeager @MersiniLmh @Sara_Imari Claudia de Rham @IBJIYONGI Matilde Marcolli #IWD #IWD2026 #InternationalWomensDay #ScienceBooks

Quantum Trick Can Power Devices Without Batteries Figure: Wang et al, Newton 100410 (2026) Scientists have used a quantum effect — the nonlinear Hall effect — to convert alternating electrical signals into usable direct currents. Usually this conversion is done with diodes or batteries, but they found a particular material (bismuth telluride (Bi₂Te₃), a topological insulator) that does it directly and demonstrated that the effect is robust at room temperature. The current they can handle is only in the range of some 100 microAmpere, but this material could convert stray electromagnetic radiation, for example from wireless networks, into electricity that could power tiny devices like sensors.