Last night I worked a bit late and thought I would step out of my office to find a quiet office suite. Instead, in the fishbowl conference room in the middle of our floor, a Professor led a class lecture about Quantum Mechanics (because of the space ‘crunch’ at our university, even the administrative conference rooms are used as classrooms after-hours). I stood there, looking through the window at the prof’s powerpoint slides for a good 10 minutes until I peeled myself away to head home (if I hadn’t had the kids to care for, I probably would’ve lingered even longer). His lecture about Schrodinger’s equation brought back fond memories from high school when I first learned about quantum mechanics via this book that I swiped from my father’s bookshelves (oh, and then there were those eager conversations with my Chemistry teacher afterwards, too, as I tried to make sense of what I was learning)…
It’s a thrill to know that the faculty that I rub shoulders with on a daily basis are doing such path-breaking work. And that I get to eavesdrop on their lectures (and aid with their pedagogy and research through my administrative position) is similarly thrilling. I’m not cut out to be a Physicist, but I know a thing or two about cats and boxes (and cats in boxes), and I remember when I first encountered Schrodinger’s cat and realized that my view of the world would never be quite the same again.
Image of my favorite Ellykitty in a box.
1 comment
I had exactly the same experience with that book! Have you read the follow-on, Shrodinger’s Kittens? http://www.amazon.com/Schrodingers-Kittens-Search-Reality-Mysteries/dp/0316328197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317388567&sr=8-1. Quantum Mechanics makes my brain go all swirly as I try to understand, but it’s a wonderful kind of swirly!