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A Life According to Quantum Physics
by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
Book Reviewed by:A young queer millennial physicist unveils some of the most mind-bending physics concepts in the universe—and uses them to illuminate their own fascinating life story.
"I see physics everywhere," Karmela Padavic-Callaghan writes. "It offers itself to me when I try to make sense of all the paths my life did and did not take, it reassures me when I try to reconcile all the identities that I feel describe me." Born in Croatia in 1991, Karmela grew up against the backdrop of the Yugoslav wars. They grew to love science and hair metal, and they began longing to see more of the world. At age 16, they received an offer to study at a boarding school in New York, setting them on a path to a physics PhD.
Now a science writer in New York, Karmela uses physics to meditate on building a life in a new country, on being nonbinary in a field dominated by cishet men, and on cause, effect, future, and destiny. Each chapter examines a moment in Karmela's life through the lens of a physics concept. Knot theory becomes a lens for the story of Karmela visiting a Croatian healer. Ultracold atom labs lead to a meditation on societal expectations that women be unfailingly warm and nurturing. And the workings of an electron microscope become a framework for Karmela's evolving relationship with cosmetics as they realized they are nonbinary.
Taking us from Croatia to New York, from quantum computing to Queen, Entangled States offers readers a unique and unforgettable journey—and shows how the world of physics and the world of humanity illuminate one another.
The wave-particle duality states that electrons or photons can behave both like particles and waves. Similarly, Padavic-Callaghan's life is defined by duality and multiplicity. They refuse to place themselves into a single category, be it nationality, gender, profession, or other aspects of identity, and instead embrace every side of who they are. The book is well balanced between memoir and science, especially in the beginning. As it progresses, it starts leaning more heavily toward the author's experiences. The book also indirectly touches on many societal topics, such as immigration, gender, mental health, funding in sciences, the "male-ness" of physics research, and more. A fresh aspect is the constant changes in style and tone. One chapter is written in the second-person singular as Padavic-Callaghan describes their struggles as a PhD student living away from their country and the difficult early Covid years. Other chapters, like one on electromagnetism, include "class assignments" to introduce physics concepts, transferring Padavic-Callaghan's passion for teaching to the reading experience...continued
Full Review
(584 words)
(Reviewed by Sofia Chatzistefanou).
Raechel Anne Jolie, author of Rust Belt Femme
Entangled States is a stunning and invigorating memoir at the intersections of science, gender, place, and wonder. I was awed by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan's ability to engage elevated physics theory alongside such gorgeous and thoughtful prose, and to meditate so intimately on the particularities of a human life alongside explanations for our universal atomic experiences. A truly remarkable debut. Raquel Gutiérrez, author of Brown Neon
Padavic-Callaghan is the ideal shepherd for today's science reader eager to feel through the fields, peaks, and valleys of quantum physics. A lyrical study of temporal frames and the capacious interactions coupled with a powerful self-inquiry into the personal and cultural cost of achieving academic success as a late-twentieth-century queer immigrant. Entangled States is a portrait of survival through the systems of irreducibility, illustrating the probabilities of different, dare I say, exciting outcomes in a powerfully lived life.Something I found especially compelling while reading Entangled States by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan was the way it questions rigid categories, both in physics and in how we understand people and the world around us. The double-slit experiment captures this beautifully: matter and light behave as both waves and particles, resisting any attempt to define them as only one thing. It is considered one of the most important experiments in quantum mechanics and physics in general.
The experiment involves sending a beam of light or particles such as electrons toward a barrier with two narrow slits. A detection screen behind the barrier records where they arrive. When only one slit is open, the result is not a single sharp line but a ...
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