Does God Play Dice?
Professor Miles Padgett FRS, is a Royal Society Research Professor and also holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He leads an optics research team covering a wide spectrum from blue-sky research to applied commercial development. Towards the end of the 19th Century many scientists thought that science itself was complete. However, in 1905 Einstein published three areas of work that caused everyone to think again and set a significant fraction of the physics agenda ever since. This is the topic of this lecture.
Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow 222nd Lecture Series
Date: Wednesday 13 December 2023
Time: 19:30 - 21:00
Venue: Sir Charles Wilson Building LT 201
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Professor Miles Padgett
Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories ever proposed, making highly accurate predictions both in fundamental science and in the underpinning of many of today’s technologies and consumer electronics such as the satellite navigation on your phone or in your car. However, although highly accurate as a predictive tool, some aspects of quantum mechanics have opponents. The fact that light has both particle-like and wave-like properties seems odd, but all scientists and philosophisers agree these are simply convenient models that we use to describe the way that light actually behaves. The concerns over quantum mechanics and its implications lie much deeper. It gives us not just a new physics but changes the understanding of our role in the universe, one in which the future is not yet decided.