Decoding quantum reality at The Royal Institution

This lecture was recorded at the Ri on 5 October 2024.

For a physicist, all the world is information, with the Universe and its workings reflecting the ebb and flow of data. We ourselves are transient patterns of information, passing on the recipe for our basic forms to future generations via a four-letter digital code called DNA. In this talk, quantum physicist Vlatko Vedral delves into some of the deepest questions about the Universe, interpreting it in terms of information. He explains the nature of information, the concept of entropy, and how these ideas are rooted in thermodynamics. Discover the bizarre effects of quantum behaviour, such as ‘entanglement’—what Einstein famously referred to as ‘spooky action at a distance’. Vlatko also explores the leading-edge work on harnessing quantum effects in hyperfast quantum computers and discusses recent evidence suggesting that the weirdness of the quantum world, once thought to be limited to the tiniest scales, may extend into the macro world.