Research Tuesdays: Quantum of Promise

Unlikely as it sounds, quantum physics is as much a part of our daily lives as a morning coffee.

The study of subatomic particles has enabled everything from barcode scanners and semiconductor-based smartphones to fibre-optic communication and MRIs.

Research Tuesdays Quantum physics

There’s more coming, too. Quantum computing promises incredibly accurate weather forecasting. Quantum brain imaging will give clinicians phenomenal medical detail. A quantum internet will deliver unhackable messages across the world.

It’s all achieved by manipulating properties that defy conventional ‘reality’: particles that exist in two places at once and only settle on one when observed; others that mirror each other’s behaviour instantaneously - even if on opposite sides of the galaxy.

University of Adelaide researchers are at the field’s cutting edge. They’re excited about the possibilities. And after this awe-inspiring presentation, you’ll understand why.


Dr Ben Sparkes

The presenter

Dr Ben Sparkes is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow based in the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing and School of Physical Sciences. He holds a 2019 Fulbright Future Scholarship and in 2018 was recognised by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science as the SA Tall Poppy of the Year.


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