When The Uncertainty Principle Goes To 11

There are deep and fundamental links between quantum physics and heavy metal.

I know that a Skeptics In The Pub audience will be deeply sceptical about that claim, but there are. Really.

Far from being music for Neanderthals, as it’s too often construed, metal can be harmonically and rhythmically complex. That complexity is the source of many connections to quantum physics. You’ll discover how the uncertainty principle can be found in chugging guitar riffs, what the double slit experiment has to do with Iron Maiden, and why metalheads in mosh pits behave just like molecules in a gas.

Philip Moriarty is a professor of physics at the University of Nottingham, a heavy metal fan, and a keen air-drummer. His research focuses on prodding, pushing, and poking single atoms and molecules; in this nanoscopic world, quantum physics is all. Moriarty has taught physics for almost twenty years and has always been struck by the number of students in his classes who profess a love of metal music, and by the deep connections between heavy metal, mathematics, and quantum mechanics. He’s a father of three — Niamh, Saoirse, and Fiachra – who have patiently endured his off-key attempts to sing along with metal classics for many years. Unlike his infamous namesake, Moriarty has never been particularly enamoured of the binomial theorem.

He blogs at https://muircheartblog.wordpress.com, and the book on which this talk is based was published by Ben Bella last year: https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Uncertainty-Principle-Goes-11/dp/1944648526

£5 on the night with extra raised after costs going to charity