Physics

Life takes funny turns. I think if I met my secondary school physics teacher today and told him that almost 20 years after ditching physics as an A-level subject, I am now working for an institute for subatomic physics, he would either stare at me hard and tell me I’m a liar or run away laughing. Granted, I was never that bad at physics (it was the chemistry teacher that gave me nightmares), but it never came to mind to find out more about the subject. That is until I started my university science communications internship at a nuclear research reactor. I became fascinated with physics. I wanted to know everything there was to know about atoms and their nuclei and that funny blue glow I could see deep in the reactor’s core.

But it wasn’t enough. I craved a physics subject that left me reeling, that left me completely in limbo as to whether I understood it or not.
Quantum Mechanics.

Ever since working for an institute for atomic and molecular physics I have been somewhat of a QM groupie. I mean, who doesn’t like the idea of a cat that can be simultaneously dead and alive as long as it is not observed*? The whole notion of quantum mechanics is mind-boggling and to be honest a little idiotic, but strangely fascinating as well. But more about that in a later blog post.
Right now I am submerged in all kinds of subatomic particles whilst working for a research institute that focuses on (astro)particle physics, so a whole new physics world is opening up for me. Dark matter, antimatter, the Big Bang, cosmic rays? Bring it on!

Knowing everything there is to know about physics? I don't think I ever will. But I am planning to get as far as I can.

*Read about Schrodinger's cat on Wikipedia