I am not a physics lover, and I do not know any even the tiniest thing about quantum physics. However, I cost 2 days to read the whole detective story “Schrödinger’s mousetrap”, which published in Nature, 2005.
The detective story was composed by some scientists together, as a celebration for the World Year of Physics. But I regard it rather a SF than a detective story. When you read it you can catch some terms such us “negadex”, “qmail”, “parallel quantum code”, etc, in which a realm you might not learn. In other hand, there are also other terms which belong in quantum physics sound interesting: “quantum state”, “collapse”, “entangle”, and, even the title itself.
You may know “Schrödinger’s cat”, and if you can understand all the mean of it, you will find that how miracle the Schrödinger’s equation is! I could get its wonder only a little for my poor quantum physics knowledge, and everyone who like me can not pick up the entry too. But no matter at all, you can still enjoy it though you do not understand quantum physics!
The detective story was composed by some scientists together, as a celebration for the World Year of Physics. But I regard it rather a SF than a detective story. When you read it you can catch some terms such us “negadex”, “qmail”, “parallel quantum code”, etc, in which a realm you might not learn. In other hand, there are also other terms which belong in quantum physics sound interesting: “quantum state”, “collapse”, “entangle”, and, even the title itself.
You may know “Schrödinger’s cat”, and if you can understand all the mean of it, you will find that how miracle the Schrödinger’s equation is! I could get its wonder only a little for my poor quantum physics knowledge, and everyone who like me can not pick up the entry too. But no matter at all, you can still enjoy it though you do not understand quantum physics!
<simple introduction>
The famous quantum physicist, Rufus Jaeger, was killed with a hole on his head while he was giving an experiment which named “Schrödinger’s mousetrap” to his audience, in his plenary lecture for the inauguration of the World Year of Physics.
After some detect works, the Inspector Karl Lister interviewed each suspect:
1. Tony Trotman: Jaeger’s head technician;
2. Fenton Baumgarden: a world authority in laser physics;
3. Nigel Lorimer: a senior editor at Nature;
4. Petra Pruszczyncki: a whiz-kid at the Gdansk Centre for optical computation;
5. Veronique Dubois: an up-and-coming experimentalist with experience insecure quantum-cryptographic;
6. Ludmilla Shlomoiuka: Jaeger’s postdoc;
7. Jirong Feng: Jaeger’s former student worked in Pruszvzyncki’s group;
8. Wilfred de Bruijn: a senior member of Jaeger’s group.
When all the interviews were done, Lister thought and found out the truth in “this world”; but what about another world? In which Jaeger’s mind, there were two parallel worlds maintain in the same time, that did like the “Schrödinger’s cat.” In one world Jaeger died, in another world he was living, the experiment got successful, they coworkers went for meal. Then one’s cell phone rang, told someone got…
The famous quantum physicist, Rufus Jaeger, was killed with a hole on his head while he was giving an experiment which named “Schrödinger’s mousetrap” to his audience, in his plenary lecture for the inauguration of the World Year of Physics.
After some detect works, the Inspector Karl Lister interviewed each suspect:
1. Tony Trotman: Jaeger’s head technician;
2. Fenton Baumgarden: a world authority in laser physics;
3. Nigel Lorimer: a senior editor at Nature;
4. Petra Pruszczyncki: a whiz-kid at the Gdansk Centre for optical computation;
5. Veronique Dubois: an up-and-coming experimentalist with experience insecure quantum-cryptographic;
6. Ludmilla Shlomoiuka: Jaeger’s postdoc;
7. Jirong Feng: Jaeger’s former student worked in Pruszvzyncki’s group;
8. Wilfred de Bruijn: a senior member of Jaeger’s group.
When all the interviews were done, Lister thought and found out the truth in “this world”; but what about another world? In which Jaeger’s mind, there were two parallel worlds maintain in the same time, that did like the “Schrödinger’s cat.” In one world Jaeger died, in another world he was living, the experiment got successful, they coworkers went for meal. Then one’s cell phone rang, told someone got…
Maybe professional writers can make it more interesting and suspense, but I still like this story.
Who was the murderer?
Everyone will concern this question during the reading – all the detective stories do. There were no more tricks in the story; and the only key was found in the interviews, which took 4/5 part of the story. Lister did a good job (though I do not know how he understood finally. -_-) the mousetrap was primed and sprung, everything was clear. In all, “Schrödinger’s mousetrap” will not despair you; that was what I believed.
Who was the murderer?
Everyone will concern this question during the reading – all the detective stories do. There were no more tricks in the story; and the only key was found in the interviews, which took 4/5 part of the story. Lister did a good job (though I do not know how he understood finally. -_-) the mousetrap was primed and sprung, everything was clear. In all, “Schrödinger’s mousetrap” will not despair you; that was what I believed.
At last, I want to appreciate to my college Nature database, so that I could read the original PDF files.
And I hope sometimes I can read another similar story about biology. ^_^
And I hope sometimes I can read another similar story about biology. ^_^