BA Festival of Science – Quantum Physics on TV

The Institute of Physics

10 September 2008

Professor Jim Al-Khalili

Communicating the concepts of quantum physics to the general public is not an easy task But one physics professor tackled this challenging subject successfully by presenting a BBC documentary aimed at explaining this mysterious and subatomic world to a national audience.

As part of the BA Festival of Science, Professor Jim Al-Khalili described his experiences in the production of ATOM, a three part series aimed at explaining quantum physics to the public, and how he got to grips with the challenges of translating a complex subject. Khalili emphasized that scientific concepts should not be ‘watered down’ when communicating to a wide audience.

ATOM ran for three series and covered many aspects of quantum physics from its history to its application, including addressing its meaning from a philosophical point of view. Pulling in a significant audience, ATOM’s success earned a move from BBC 4 to BBC 2, where Khalili took the viewer on a journey around the world, discovering fascinating and relevant facts in every episode. Each setting was diverse and exciting, often featuring scientific landmarks such as the Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles and the Niels Bohr laboratories in Copenhagen.

Khalili tackled a wide range of subjects as diverse as radioactivity, the atomic bomb, and the Big Bang, and investigated topics that are more philosophical in nature, such as how and why the world exists as we know it. The popularity of his series even resulted in You Tube broadcasting an episode: ‘Schrödinger’s Cat.’

The success of ATOM is a significant step forward for communicating science to a wide, national audience through one of the most powerful and influential media of our time; it tells a story of physics that is truthful, insightful and challenging.

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