Noise

Clear as Quantum

Kirk McKenzie talks about quantum "noise" and some of the most impressively precise measurements ever made.

Kirk brings quantum precision to some of the biggest questions about our planet and universe. He works on laser instruments that have to face up to (and "squeeze") the fluctuations of quantum noise in order to detect gravitational waves - tiny movements of a mirror by a billionth of a millionth of a millimetre! Similar instruments are now in space to measure droughts, floods, and melting polar ice caps (all from low-earth orbit). We are blown away by both the giant size of these experiments and the the minuscule movements they can measure, and Kirk talks about giant speaker horns and hungry Nobel laureates.

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