Robin Ince examines Schrodinger's Cat, the paradox at the heart
of quantum physics, and discovers its influence on science and
popular culture. Fifty years after the death of Nobel laureate
Erwin Schrodinger, the quantum mysteries of his cat-in-a-box
paradox still continue to drive physicists in research today.
Can a living thing be both alive and dead at the same time?
Schrodinger's experiment was an almost playful creation, but one
that stabbed at the heart of the 1930s physics establishment. By
the 1950s, US physicist Hugh Everett concluded that, indeed,
both a dead cat and an alive cat can exist, but in separate
universes. His 'Many Worlds' theory inspired authors, from
Philip K Dick to Philip Pullman. Robin follows in the Austrian
physicist's footsteps to Oxford University, where Schrodinger
was once a fellow, and unearths some original archive at
Magdalen College. Physicist Sir Roger Penrose speaks about its
impact on quantum theory to this day. Why has Schrodinger's Cat
gained such currency not just in