Judges

We have amazing judges for the contest again this year. They will choose a winner and runner up in each category. There's one panel to review entries to the Open category and another for the Youth category.

Here's an at-a-glance listing of the judges. Click through to learn more about them.

Open Category

Mark Alpert, Author, most recently of novel The Six
Mariette DiChristina, Editor in Chief of Scientific American
Artur Ekert, Director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore
Pawel Frelik, Associate Professor at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and Immediate Past President of the Science Fiction Research Association
Michael Mrak, Design Director of Scientific American
Colin Sullivan, Editor, Nature Futures
Eleanor Wong, Playwright, former writer-in-residence at the Centre for Quantum Technologies

Youth Category

Greg Dick, Director of Educational Outreach at Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Otto Fong, cartoonist & former Outreach Fellow, Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore
Tania Hershman, Author of short story collection My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions among others
Clara Moskowitz, Associate Editor covering space and physics, Scientific American
Chad Orzel, Associate Professor at Union College in Schenectady, NY, blogger and author
Vlatko Vedral, Principal Investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore
Yeow Kai Chai, Poet and Director of the Singapore Writers Festival 2015

Quantum Theory: A to Z

X is for ... X-ray

In 1923 Arthur Compton shone X-rays onto a block of graphite and found that they bounced off with their energy reduced exactly as would be expected if they were composed of particles colliding with electrons in the graphite. This was the first indication of radiationâ€™s particle-like nature.

P is for ... Planck's Constant

This is one of the universal constants of nature, and relates the energy of a single quantum of radiation to its frequency. It is central to quantum theory and appears in many important formulae, including the SchrÃ¶dinger Equation.

B is for ... Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC)

At extremely low temperatures, quantum rules mean that atoms can come together and behave as if they are one giant super-atom.

M is for ... Multiverse

Our most successful theories of cosmology suggest that our universe is one of many universes that bubble off from one another. Itâ€™s not clear whether it will ever be possible to detect these other universes.

R is for ... Radioactivity

The atoms of a radioactive substance break apart, emitting particles. It is impossible to predict when the next particle will be emitted as it happens at random. All we can do is give the probability that any particular atom will have decayed by a given time.

I is for ... Information

Many researchers working in quantum theory believe that information is the most fundamental building block of reality.

Q is for ... Qubit

One quantum bit of information is known as a qubit (pronounced Q-bit). The ability of quantum particles to exist in many different states at once means a single quantum object can represent multiple qubits at once, opening up the possibility of extremely fast information processing.

R is for ... Randomness

Unpredictability lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. It bothered Einstein, but it also bothers the Dalai Lama.

U is for ... Uncertainty Principle

One of the most famous ideas in science, this declares that it is impossible to know all the physical attributes of a quantum particle or system simultaneously.

T is for ... Tunnelling

This happens when quantum objects â€œborrowâ€ energy in order to bypass an obstacle such as a gap in an electrical circuit. It is possible thanks to the uncertainty principle, and enables quantum particles to do things other particles canâ€™t.

A is for ... Atom

This is the basic building block of matter that creates the world of chemical elements â€“ although it is made up of more fundamental particles.

T is for ... Teleportation

Quantum tricks allow a particle to be transported from one location to another without passing through the intervening space â€“ or thatâ€™s how it appears. The reality is that the process is more like faxing, where the information held by one particle is written onto a distant particle.

U is for ... Universe

To many researchers, the universe behaves like a gigantic quantum computer that is busy processing all the information it contains.

R is for ... Reality

Since the predictions of quantum theory have been right in every experiment ever done, many researchers think it is the best guide we have to the nature of reality. Unfortunately, that still leaves room for plenty of ideas about what reality really is!

I is for ... Interferometer

Some of the strangest characteristics of quantum theory can be demonstrated by firing a photon into an interferometer: the deviceâ€™s output is a pattern that can only be explained by the photon passing simultaneously through two widely-separated slits.

E is for ... Entanglement

When two quantum objects interact, the information they contain becomes shared. This can result in a kind of link between them, where an action performed on one will affect the outcome of an action performed on the other. This â€œentanglementâ€ applies even if the two particles are half a universe apart.

N is for ... Nonlocality

When two quantum particles are entangled, it can also be said they are â€œnonlocalâ€: their physical proximity does not affect the way their quantum states are linked.

O is for ... Objective reality

Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, said there is no such thing as objective reality. All we can talk about, he said, is the results of measurements we make.

H is for ... Hidden Variables

One school of thought says that the strangeness of quantum theory can be put down to a lack of information; if we could find the â€œhidden variablesâ€ the mysteries would all go away.

W is for ... Wavefunction

The mathematics of quantum theory associates each quantum object with a wavefunction that appears in the SchrÃ¶dinger equation and gives the probability of finding it in any given state.

D is for ... Decoherence

Unless it is carefully isolated, a quantum system will â€œleakâ€ information into its surroundings. This can destroy delicate states such as superposition and entanglement.

Q is for ... Quantum biology

A new and growing field that explores whether many biological processes depend on uniquely quantum processes to work. Under particular scrutiny at the moment are photosynthesis, smell and the navigation of migratory birds.

A is for ... Act of observation

Some people believe this changes everything in the quantum world, even bringing things into existence.

V is for ... Virtual particles

Quantum theoryâ€™s uncertainty principle says that since not even empty space can have zero energy, the universe is fizzing with particle-antiparticle pairs that pop in and out of existence. These â€œvirtualâ€ particles are the source of Hawking radiation.

D is for ... Dice

Albert Einstein decided quantum theory couldnâ€™t be right because its reliance on probability means everything is a result of chance. â€œGod doesnâ€™t play dice with the world,â€ he said.

G is for ... Gravity

Our best theory of gravity no longer belongs to Isaac Newton. Itâ€™s Einsteinâ€™s General Theory of Relativity. Thereâ€™s just one problem: it is incompatible with quantum theory. The effort to tie the two together provides the greatest challenge to physics in the 21st century.

P is for ... Probability

Quantum mechanics is a probabilistic theory: it does not give definite answers, but only the probability that an experiment will come up with a particular answer. This was the source of Einsteinâ€™s objection that God â€œdoes not play diceâ€ with the universe.

C is for ... Computing

The rules of the quantum world mean that we can process information much faster than is possible using the computers we use now.

H is for ... Hawking Radiation

In 1975, Stephen Hawking showed that the principles of quantum mechanics would mean that a black hole emits a slow stream of particles and would eventually evaporate.

M is for ... Many Worlds Theory

Some researchers think the best way to explain the strange characteristics of the quantum world is to allow that each quantum event creates a new universe.

L is for ... Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

At CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, this machine is smashing apart particles in order to discover their constituent parts and the quantum laws that govern their behaviour.

F is for ... Free Will

Ideas at the heart of quantum theory, to do with randomness and the character of the molecules that make up the physical matter of our brains, lead some researchers to suggest humans canâ€™t have free will.

S is for ... SchrÃ¶dinger Equation

This is the central equation of quantum theory, and describes how any quantum system will behave, and how its observable qualities are likely to manifest in an experiment.

G is for ... Gluon

These elementary particles hold together the quarks that lie at the heart of matter.

L is for ... Light

We used to believe light was a wave, then we discovered it had the properties of a particle that we call a photon. Now we know it, like all elementary quantum objects, is both a wave and a particle!

Z is for ... Zero-point energy

Even at absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, nothing has zero energy. In these conditions, particles and fields are in their lowest energy state, with an energy proportional to Planckâ€™s constant.

C is for ... Cryptography

People have been hiding information in messages for millennia, but the quantum world provides a whole new way to do it.

S is for ... Superposition

Quantum objects can exist in two or more states at once: an electron in superposition, for example, can simultaneously move clockwise and anticlockwise around a ring-shaped conductor.

B is for ... Bell's Theorem

In 1964, John Bell came up with a way of testing whether quantum theory was a true reflection of reality. In 1982, the results came in â€“ and the world has never been the same since!

S is for ... SchrÃ¶dingerâ€™s Cat

A hypothetical experiment in which a cat kept in a closed box can be alive and dead at the same time â€“ as long as nobody lifts the lid to take a look.

A is for ... Alice and Bob

In quantum experiments, these are the names traditionally given to the people transmitting and receiving information. In quantum cryptography, an eavesdropper called Eve tries to intercept the information.

K is for ... Kaon

These are particles that carry a quantum property called strangeness. Some fundamental particles have the property known as charm!

J is for ... Josephson Junction

This is a narrow constriction in a ring of superconductor. Current can only move around the ring because of quantum laws; the apparatus provides a neat way to investigate the properties of quantum mechanics.

W is for ... Wave-particle duality

It is possible to describe an atom, an electron, or a photon as either a wave or a particle. In reality, they are both: a wave and a particle.

Y is for ... Young's Double Slit Experiment

In 1801, Thomas Young proved light was a wave, and overthrew Newtonâ€™s idea that light was a â€œcorpuscleâ€.

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