Jeff Forshaw & Daniel Bor

The concepts of quantum physics seem to fly in the face of everything we know about how the universe is supposed to work. Particles behave like waves. A particle can be anywhere in the universe at a later time. A particle traveling from Point A to Point B does not move in a straight line but along all possible paths. And that is just for starters. Yet this is the way the universe really works and quantum physics can predict the fate of a star or explain why a laser works. Tonight on Inquiry we talk with JEFF FORSHAW, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Manchester. Together with Brian Cox, Professor of Particle Physics at Manchester University, they have written a new book THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE (AND WHY ANYTHING THAT CAN HAPPEN , DOES) that explains these ideas and many more to show why “Quantum Theory is perhaps the prime example of the infinitely esoteric becoming profoundly useful.”

What is human consciousness and does it emerge from some particular part of our brain? Do other animals experience consciousness and is there any proof for the evolution of consciousness. These are some of the most essential and important questions of our existence. Our guest tonight on Inquiry is DANIEL BOR, a research fellow at the Sackler Center for Consciousness Science and the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex. His new book THE RAVENOUS BRAIN: HOW THE NEW SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINS OUR INSATIABLE SEARCH FOR MEANING is a dynamic and fascinating review of the latest scientific discoveries in the neurosciences and what it can tell us about our experience of who we are.