"Quantum Magic" Initiative Underway

May 4, 2005

Contact:
Greg Boebinger, (850) 644-0851
Mike Davidson, (850) 644-0542
davidson@magnet.fsu.edu

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Florida State University will host National Academy of Science member David Pines and a small group of eminent scientists and science communicators who are pioneering an informal science education project titled, "Quantum Magic: The Story of Superconductivity." "Quantum Magic" seeks to explain to the general public the microscopic theory of superconductivity first recognized by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972 for their work. Dr. Schrieffer is the Chief Scientist of the NHMFL and University Eminent Scholar Professor at FSU.

The "Quantum Magic" working group includes, among others:

• Barry Aprison, Ph.D., Director of Science and Technology, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. In 1989, Aprison developed "Decoding Life—A Symphony in Four Notes", a musical-theatrical production about DNA that attracted more than 100,000 visitors to the museum in one summer.
• Linda Feferman, Guggenheim Fellow and Sundance award-winning producer, director, and writer. She was Series Producer and Director of the Timothy Ferris National PBS series "Life Beyond Earth," broadcast in 1999. Feferman was nominated for an Emmy for the PBS series "The Astronomers" and also a Grammy for a music video. Her feature film "Seven Minutes in Heaven" received an award at the Sundance Film Festival.
• Rob Semper, Ph.D., a physicist and science educator. Semper is Executive Associate Director of the Exploratorium in San Francisco and is responsible for leading the institution's work in developing programs of teaching and learning using exhibits, media, and Internet resources.
• Michael Davidson, an optical microscopist at the NHMFL who develops and directs educational Web sites that attract 20,000 to 40,000 hits per day. Images on Molecular Expressions™, Exploring the World of Optics and Microscopy, (micro.magnet.fsu.edu) have been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, and Physics Today.

The laboratory will also be represented by NHMFL Director Greg Boebinger, who co-directs with Pines the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter—a distributed "institute without walls" for the exchange of scientific ideas that currently involves 47 institutions. The lead institution is NHMFL partner, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Among its many goals, ICAM aims to translate complicated science concepts for the public and engage students in a lifelong appreciation of science and technology. One of ICAM's educational efforts, "Quantum Magic", begins by bringing together leaders in the physical and biological sciences with leaders in the science museum and documentary film world. The meetings to be held at the laboratory on May 5-6 are focused on the immediate goal of producing major museum exhibits, Web sites, and other media in the years 2007-2009 to trumpet the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the transistor by Bardeen, and the 50th anniversary of the publication of the historic paper on superconductivty by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer. Lev P. Gor'kov, another Magnet Lab physicist and an early pioneer in superconductivity theory, will also be featured in the "Quantum Magic" project. Yesterday, on May 3, Dr. Gor'kov was elected to be a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

ICAM's efforts to bring together physics, chemistry, and biological research have been discussed in the New York Times "Science Times" section and in a recently-published book by Nobel Laureate Robert B. Laughlin titled "A Different Universe, Re-inventing Physics from the Bottom Down."

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (www.magnet.fsu.edu) develops and operates state-of-the-art high-magnetic-field facilities that faculty and visiting scientists and engineers use for research in physics, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, geochemistry, biochemistry, and materials science. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida, the lab is operated by Florida State University, and its 330,000-square-foot main facility is located in Tallahassee’s Innovation Park. The magnet lab also has facilities at the University of Florida and at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.