From deep inside the sewers of Vienna, site of groundbreaking quantum teleportation experiments, to cutting-edge quantum computing labs, to voyages into the minds of the world’s brightest thinkers, including renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking, The Quantum Tamers: Revealing Our Weird and Wired Future is a new television documentary that explores the coming quantum technological revolution. 

"The Quantum Tamers presents the weirdness and wonder of the quantum world in a strikingly original, accessible and engaging visual style. It graphically conveys why quantum physics is so useful and why it holds the key to futuristic information technologies", says Neil Turok, Director of Perimeter Institute. "I think you will find yourself challenged and amazed, just like the scientists themselves. Sharing in their enthusiasm for research, discovery and innovation is part of the fun."

Behind the Scenes

Shot in High Definition in 16 cities in 6 countries, and using dance and animation to describe quantum physics, this entertaining program brings together over a dozen of the planet’s brightest minds (see below) to show how the weird is becoming wired and why a new era of quantum technologies may rock your world. 

See The Quantum Tamers in
Canada on TVO on Tuesday,
February 16 at 10:00 pm EST
and Wednesday, February
17 at 1:00 am EST.

In October 2009, The Quantum Tamers will premiere in Canada at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival, in the USA at the New York United Film Festival and in Europe at the prestigious Pariscience festival. These screenings are concurrent with international distribution activities aimed at television networks and specialty channels around the globe.  In Canada, you can view the program on October 20th at 10:00 pm (EDST) in a newly created science strand on TVO. The TVO signal can be found across Canada on Bell TV channel 265 or Shaw Direct/Star Choice channel 353.  You will also find TVO on Channel 2 in most areas of Ontario (check local listings). This new documentary is co-produced by Canada’s Perimeter Institute and Title Entertainment, with international distribution handled by Electric Sky (contact info below).

About the Documentary

Over one hundred years ago, scientists began to observe very strange behaviours at the level of mere atoms and subatomic particles. They discovered that particles could be waves, that waves could be particles, and that particles could appear to be in two places at the same time.  Scientists also found that particles could become 'entangled', such that a change made to one would result in an immediate change in the other, regardless of whether the particles were an arm's length apart or separated by light years. Albert Einstein called this quantum weirdness "spooky action at a distance."

Though these behaviours still puzzle scientists, their quantum features have already brought us lasers, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in health care (MRIs), modern micro-circuitry, and the CDs and DVDs that are so much a part of our modern world.

Now scientists and engineers are on the threshold of a new quantum technological revolution. Exploiting what some describe as the 'weirdest' and most counterintuitive principles of quantum physics, these scientists' experiments will have far-reaching impact on how we live our lives. Their novel ideas and promising technologies involve super-powerful quantum computers that process quantum bits, or "qubits," of information; ultra-secure quantum codes to safeguard communications; and even quantum teleportation (as the world’s real "Mr. Beam" explains). Featured scientists in the Quantum Tamers include:    

Dorit Aharonov, Hebrew University
Dr. Aharonov is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hebrew University in Israel. In addition to other interests, her work focuses on quantum computation, algorithms and cryptography. 

Alain Aspect, Institut d’Optique and Ecole Polytechnique
Dr. Aspect is a Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique in France. He is a respected figure in quantum mechanics research and, in addition to a lengthy list of accomplishments, he is credited with settling a 70-year-old dispute between Bohr and Einstein regarding quantum entanglement. 

David Cory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Cory is a Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chairs the advisory committee for CIFAR’s Quantum Information Processing program. He is an experimental physicist working to develop spin-based quantum processors.

Joseph Emerson, University of Waterloo
Dr. Emerson is currently a faculty member of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, studying quantum computing and the foundations of quantum theory. Prior to his position at UW, he held postdoctoral positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Perimeter Institute. 

Nicolas Gisin, University of Geneva
Dr. Gisin is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Geneva. Among other distinctions, he has recently won the first Biennial John Stewart Bell Prize for Research on Fundamental Issues in Quantum Mechanics and their Applications.

Daniel Gottesman, Perimeter Institute
Dr. Gottesman has spent over 10 years working in the field of quantum information and is widely regarded as a world expert on techniques for preventing errors in quantum computing. A former student of John Preskill, he has worked at Los Alamos, Microsoft Research, and UC Berkeley. 

Lucien Hardy, Perimeter Institute
Dr. Hardy has held several international research and lecturing positions. While in Rome, he collaborated on an experiment to demonstrate quantum teleportation. In 1992, he found a very simple proof of nonlocality in quantum theory, now known as Hardy’s theorem. 

Stephen Hawking, University of Cambridge
Dr. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and a Distinguished Research Chair at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is known for his many contributions to the fields of cosmology, black holes and quantum gravity.  

Raymond Laflamme, University of Waterloo
Dr. Laflamme is the Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), and an Associate Faculty member at Perimeter Institute. Amongst his most important theoretical results was inventing, with Emmanuel Knill and Gerard Milburn, a radically new approach to quantum computing using linear optics.  

Seth Lloyd, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Lloyd is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a principal investigator at the Research Laboratory of Electronics.  In addition to his contributions to quantum computation and quantum communications research, he is also the author of “Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos.” 

Gerard Milburn, University of Queensland
Dr. Milburn is a Professor at the University of Queensland, Deputy Director of the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT), and Program Manager for Quantum Information Theory at CQCT.  He is the author of two books that seek to explain quantum phenomena for a general audience, “Schrodinger’s Machines” and “The Feynman Processor.”  

Peter Shor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Shor is a professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT.  Among his many contributions to foundational research is Shor’s algorithm, a quantum algorithm for factoring numbers that is exponentially faster than any currently running on classical computers. 

Barbara Terhal, IBM Watson Research Center
Dr. Terhal is a Research Staff Member at the IBM Watson Research Center.  She is interested in finding applications of quantum mechanics in information and computation, as well as expanding quantum mechanics as a physical theory.  

Andrew White, University of Queensland
Dr. White joined the University of Queensland in 1999 from Los Alamos National Laboratory. His PhD research, conducted in Australia and Germany, won the Australian National University’s Medal for best PhD thesis. White’s interests are quantum information, quantum optics, and all aspects of quantum weirdness. 

David Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Wineland is the leader of the Ion-Storage Group in the Time and Frequency Division at NIST.  His work on laser cooling has led to significant advancements in physics research, including the development of laser-cooled atomic clocks, which are the state of the art in time and frequency standards. 

Stuart Wolf, University of Virginia
Dr. Wolf is the Director of the University of Virginia Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Scientific and Technological Advanced Research (nanoSTAR) as well as a Professor in both the Materials Science and Engineering and the Physics departments.  He is known for continuing to push the frontiers in spintronics and quantum information science. 

William K. Wootters, Williams College
Dr. Wootters is the Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Physics Department at Williams College.  He has made significant contributions to quantum information theory and quantum teleportation. Over the years he has been a visiting researcher at the Santa Fe Institute, the University of Montreal and the IBM Watson Research Center. 

Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna
Dr. Zeilinger has worked in top level universities and research centres around the world. In 1997, he and his colleagues confirmed aspects of quantum teleportation by teleporting light particles. He has received more than 20 awards and honorary doctorates for his work, including the Isaac Newton medal. 

Wojciech Zurek, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dr. Zurek is currently a Laboratory Fellow in the Theory Division and a former J. Robert Oppenheimer Fellow at Los Alamos.  He is also a foreign associate of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).  He is best known for his work in quantum information and decoherence. 

Additional PI Resources

Perimeter Institute’s award-winning outreach team provides ongoing programming and opportunities for students, teachers and members of the general public. Much of the content appears online. The following webpages contain information and multimedia presentations relating to quantum physics. 

Perimeter Explorations
Downloadable in-class videos and teacher notes that bring abstract ideas to life for high school students. Learn more about wave-particle duality with:

• The Challenge of Quantum Reality (coming soon)

What We Research
Introductions to the research areas at Perimeter Institute, including:

• Quantum Information
• Quantum Foundations

PI Public Lectures
Online playbacks of popular monthly talks. This selection is particularly relevant to quantum physics and quantum information. Click on the links below to read a full description of each talk and choose your viewing format.

• Raymond Laflamme – Harnessing the Quantum World
• Anton Zeilinger – From Einstein to Quantum Information
• Alain Aspect – From Einstein’s Intuition to Quantum Bits
• Seth Lloyd – Programming the Universe
• Daniel Gottesman - Quantum Cryptography: A Tale of Secrets Hidden and Revealed Through the Laws of Physics

Meet a Scientist
What makes a scientist tick?   How did they get started?  What advice do they offer today’s students?  
Enjoy these clips featuring personal stories and advice from researchers

Special Events
PI’s 10th anniversary festival activities explore quantum physics and beyond. Full details at Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future. 

About Perimeter Institute

Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent, non-profit, scientific research and educational outreach organization where international scientists cluster to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The centre provides a multi-disciplinary environment to foster scientific collaboration in research areas of cosmology, particle physics, quantum foundations, quantum gravity, quantum information, superstring theory, and related disciplines.

Located in Waterloo, Ontario, PI also provides a wide array of award-winning outreach activities in order to share the share the joy of research, discovery and innovation.  In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, Perimeter Institute continues to be a successful example of private and public collaboration in science research and education.  A full history is available at www.perimeterinstitute.ca/.

Media inquiries can be directed to Angela Robinson, Communications Coordinator, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics at arobinson@perimeterinstitute.ca, 519.569.7600 x5051.

About Title Entertainment
Title Entertainment Inc. is an integrated media and entertainment company founded in 2004 by industry veterans Frank Taylor and Dulcie Clark. Title develops, produces, and exploits carefully selected properties over the full array of media platforms and is active in animation, documentaries, dramatic features, and television programs.

Inquiries can be directed to Julie Fletcher at info@titleentertainment.com, 613.232.1255 x221. 

About Electric Sky
Electric Sky is a cutting edge, forward thinking, innovative distribution and rights-management company. Specializing in quality factual program distribution, and enjoying a strong reputation in the industry, Electric Sky recently scored a top position among the Top 10 Most Used Distributors in the UK in the recent broadcast survey. Established in 1998, the company continues to grow, with a diverse catalogue featuring over 1000 hours of inspired programming.  

About TVO
TVO is Ontario's public educational media organization and a trusted source of interactive educational content that informs, inspires and stimulates curiosity and thought. TVO's vision is to empower people to be engaged citizens of Ontario through educational media. For more information, visit www.tvo.org.