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Sabrina Patsch beim Q-Science Slam Stuttgart. Foto: Max Kovalenko/IQST
Q-Science Slam by the University Stuttgart at Theaterhaus Stuttgart . Photo: Max Kovalenko/IQST

I’m Sabrina, theoretical physics and journalist at the Berlin newspaper “Tagesspiegel”. However, anything but capital city blood flows through my veins because I was born in a small town in southern Lower Saxony: Northeim. At most, you know it from the motorway exit of the A7 or hidden through alcohol from Nörten-Hardenberg (gourmet beer) or Katlenburg (colourful teen fruit punch), both of which belong to Northeim. After my A-levels, however, I was bitten by the adventurous spirit and moved to Kassel, 70 km away. There I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in physics and also started my doctorate. But I was drawn from the capital of raccoons to the capital of bears, and here I am!

In my doctorate, I am working on quantum technology. According to my experience, this topic – along with astrophysics – seems to arouse a degree of interest among non-physicists that is absolutely untypical for physics. At parties, in pubs or at the hairdresser’s – nowhere is safe from questions like these:

Cats that are dead and alive at the same time, wow, is this even possible to understand? Is light a particle or a wave now? I saw a documentary about it once, I am an expert on this. Quantum computers are on Google now, aren’t they? I loved Big Bang Theory, is that how your life looks like? What are these quanta? They recently found a new particle, that’s exciting! When are you going to get a real job? Does this quantum time travel from the last Marvel film really work? Why does the universe smell like raspberries?

Don’t get me wrong: this is not a criticism. I am delighted by such questions, or at least amused by them (like the last one, for example). In particular, I am pleased by the interest and fascination in the quantum world. I am always happy to answer such questions and enjoy talking about them. However, it is also a challenge, as quantum mechanics is one of the topics that is not even mentioned in school (in most cases). Moreover, hardly anyone knows how research actually works and what we do at the university all day long apart from teaching.

That’s why I decided to write a blog about these topics. About small physicists, my path to a doctorate and my experiences in research. And about small particles, quanta and how I try to tame them. If you have ever asked yourself any of these questions, this blog is for you, because I try to explain all these questions (and more!) in an easy way and without technical terms. If you have a background in maths, computer science, natural sciences or technology and these situations sound familiar to you, this blog is also for you, because it’s much easier to laugh in company. And if you have nothing to do with all this, maybe the cats will convince you to stay here for a while and have a look around! Because:

The most beautiful thing we can experience is mystery. It is the basic feeling that stands at the cradle of true art and science. He who does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is, so to speak, dead and his eye is extinguished.

Albert Einstein


Find other contributions by me in my portfolio.