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Culture, history and society

Culture, history and society

The emotions of discovery, the quantum TV thriller Devs, nanosponges take on COVID-19

02 Jul 2020 Hamish Johnston

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast the philosopher of science Bob Crease chats about how physicists react when they have discovered something new – the topic of his latest column in Physics World: “The feelings you get when you discover something new”.

Murder and the interpretations of quantum mechanics feature highly in the plot of the television series Devs, which is set on the campus of a fictitious quantum computer company in Silicon Valley. Science writer Phil Ball joins Physics World editors for a lively discussion about how quantum physics is portrayed in Devs and whether it works as a physics thriller.

One way of treating people with COVID-19 is to prevent the virus from attacking healthy cells. We chat about how researchers in the US are developing nanosponges that do this by soaking up virus particles.

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