Happy Birthday to Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel laureate and pioneer of quantum mechanics, born in Vienna 12 August 1887.
Why is Schrödinger’s work so important? For a start, without it we would not be here. It is the theory behind superconductivity, which is the foundation of computer technology, Without superconductivity, Silicon Valley would still be full of oranges and there would be no smart phones .
Everybody knows Schrödinger’s name, even those of us for whom quantum mechanics is a firmly closed book.
And why is this?
Because of his cat.
Schrödinger came up with the cat-based thought experiment we all think we understand in correspondence with Albert Einstein in 1935. (It was entirely theoretical–no cat was harmed at any point). Imagine a cat sealed in a box with a vial of poison, a radioactive substance and a Geiger counter rigged to release the poison when or if it detects atomic decay. RIP cat. The substance could take days to decay, or may not decay at all. Mathematically speaking, as we can’t see into the box, so don’t know if decay has occurred, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time. The only way to find out for certain is to open the box and look. At this point, all probability waves collapse.
Schrödinger’s cat is often used to explain the concept of superposition, a term used to describe how a quantum system exists in all of its possible states at the same time, until it is observed and measured .
Why is this thought experiment such a pop science success? It went viral before going viral was a thing .Obviously, this is because it is so very cat. We know how cats behave. Any cat worth its whiskers will get into a box unbidden, especially if it is slightly smaller than the cat. Schrödinger had hit upon a winning formula: cat plus hard science. His cat is a global meme supreme and certainly enjoys a superposition (quantum mechanical joke there, somewhere) as a friendly guide to Schrödinger’s cerebral world. Amazing what the addition of a quantum of feline charm can do.
And now for the publishing bit. Time for some brand ambassadoring.
Schrödinger’s cat is a fine example of the thinking behind Clowder Press, which is to harness the universal popularity, and media saturation of cats to educate and entertain. The Clowder Parafeline list is home to the Creative Cats series - brief, informative and lively accounts of the lives and works of major artists, writers, musicians and scientists using their cats as an entry point. Check it out,
So happy birthday Erwin. Let other theoretical physicists huddle in corners of the standard model muttering to themselves and wondering why they didn’t think of uniting hard brain work with naturally universally attractive creatures such as cats.
Ironically no-one seems to know whether or not Schrödinger had an actual cat. There are rumours that he did. It was called Milton and lived with him in his Oxford ménage à trois with his wife and mistress. However, that remains a superposition.