Can Quantum Gravity Be Created in the Lab? | PODCAST: The Joy of Why

Video Description

Quantum gravity could help physicists unite the currently incompatible worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity. In this episode, Stanford University physicist Monika Schleier-Smith discusses her pioneering experimental approach, using laser-cooled atoms to explore whether gravity could emerge from quantum entanglement. “The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the astrophysicist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. - Listen to more episodes of Joy of Why: https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why/ ----------- CHAPTERS: 00:00 Steve and Janna discuss quantum gravity 03:10 Monika Schleier-Smith’s early career 04:50 What’s missing from the Standard Model of physics 07:18 The problem of quantum gravity 11:20 Does ‘entanglement’ explain emergent quantum gravity? 13:08 Holographic duality 15:06 Experimental techniques for measuring entanglement 17:09 Schleier-Smith’s toy model of gravity in the lab 25:28 Steve and Janna discuss Schleier-Smith’s experiment 26:44 The controversy around the theory 28:30 Testing holographic duality 38:40 Janna and Steve on high-risk research ----------- The Joy of Why is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation. Funding decisions by the Simons Foundation have no influence on the selection of topics, guests, or other editorial decisions in this podcast, or in Quanta Magazine. The Joy of Why is produced by PRX productions. The production team is Caitlin Faulds, Livia Brock, Genevieve Sponsler, and Merritt Jacob. The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzalez. Edwin Ochoa is our project manager. From Quanta Magazine, Simon Frantz and Samir Patel provided editorial guidance, with support from Matt Carlstrom, Samuel Velasco, Simone Barr, and Michael Kanyongolo. Samir Patel is Quanta's Editor in Chief. Our theme music is from APM Music. The episode art is by Peter Greenwood, and our logo is by Jaki King and Kristina Armitage. Special thanks to the Columbia Journalism School and the Cornell Broadcast Studios. --------- Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation. We focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences. READ free math and science articles on the Quanta website: www.quantamagazine.org LEARN about the Simons Foundation: www.simonsfoundation.org FOLLOW our social channels: - Instagram: quantamag - Bluesky: @quantamagazine.bsky.social‬ - Facebook: quantanews - X: quantamagazine