Counterintuitive, fascinating and revolutionary: quantum mechanics is on display at Muse, the Science Museum of Trento, told by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics between interactive stations and immersive reality capable of communicating all the innovative scope of this singular theory. Scheduled from 7 December 2023 to 15 June 2024, the exhibition is entitled “How much. The revolution in one leap. Macrocosms, microcosms, quanta, paradoxes and cosmos are the sectors in which the exhibition is organized, designed to tell schools and the general public about the impact that quantum mechanics has had on physics, scientific progress and society.
“Quantum Mechanics represented a real paradigm shift, not only from a scientific, but also human and social point of view”, observes the president of the Infn Antonio Zoccoli. “Over one hundred years after its formulation, scientists are still debating its founding principles, its epistemological and philosophical implications. And, starting from quantum mechanics, they continue to develop new technologies – continues Zoccoli – which will lead to applications, some of which will most likely prove revolutionary for our lives and our society. This exhibition therefore arises from the awareness that a greater understanding of this extraordinary theory is a fundamental step towards greater knowledge of nature, of the universe, of the very reality in which we all find ourselves living”.
Born in the context of theoretical research, quantum mechanics today has numerous applications, from computers to lasers and cryptography to guarantee communications that are practically impossible to intercept. Although it originated in physics, it is becoming increasingly relevant in many other fields, such as biology. The exhibition “leads us to understand scientific theories as the sum of continuous modifications and improvements based on new evidence and research results. An opportunity to reflect on how science is the best method for understanding the functioning of the world around us”, observes the director of Muse, Michele Lanzinger.
Designed by the Dotdotdot design studio, the installation offers a journey through time, from the atom to the universe. We begin with the stage dedicated to the macroscopic world described by classical physics, the protagonists of the story, bodies and light. We continue with the microcosm, delving into the atom, where classical theory enters into crisis and the need for a new vision of the physical world emerges: the idea of the quantum of light is born. At the heart of the exhibition the public can experience, through interactive installations, the founding ideas of quantum mechanics. The surprising journey then crosses the twentieth century, recounting the famous debate between the great physicists and Nobel Prize winners Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, the pioneering experiments that from the Seventies carry us into the new millennium, up to the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2022 and the experiments that have pioneered quantum technologies, from cryptography to quantum computers.
The exhibition ends with the last stage dedicated to the cosmos, to the macroscopic manifestations of quantum mechanics, such as the lighting of the stars, and to the new conception of the universe, an unsettling reality, where everything is quantum, including the matter we are made of .
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