BCS theory, formulated in 1957 by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Schrieffer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, gave a quantum mechanical explanation for superconductivity, decades after the phenomenon itself had been discovered experimentally. That same year, Hugh Everett proposed the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics as his Princeton PhD thesis under John Wheeler, arguing that the universe is governed by a single continuously evolving wave function with no collapse, so that outcomes like a live or dead Schrodinger's cat both exist, with observers simply entangled with the branch they find themselves in.
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Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer won the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for BCS theory.
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John Wheeler, Everett's PhD advisor, also advised Richard Feynman and is described as a seminal figure in physics.
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The hosts contrast many worlds with the Copenhagen interpretation and with the pilot wave (Bohmian) interpretation as other ways of explaining quantum weirdness.
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Everett reportedly left physics for a job at the Pentagon after facing resistance from figures like Niels Bohr, which the hosts call a major loss for physics.
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1:39:001957 formulation of the BCS not football theory of superc conductivity. Yes, this was John Bardin Cooper and Shrier. They figured out why superconductivity is a thing. They we had known about superconductivity for a while that had been discovered earlier and already gotten a Nobel Prize for the experimental discovery. This was why is it actually happening and it turns out it's a quantum phenomenon. We describe it in length in our Nobel Prize episode because that has to do with the tunneling of superc conductivity. Um they won the Nobel Prize from the University of Urbana Champagne in Illinois 1972 physics. >> Is this our first Urbana Champagne on
1:39:42the list? >> This is the first Urbana Champagne on the list. >> We've given a shout out before. Uh University of Illinois has great great work >> and there are several more coming up >> the in in this arena. First on the board, 1957, formulation of the many worlds interpretation. Shout out Sean Carroll. >> Yeah, this is the one that is all the hype these days. >> Yes. >> Okay. Nobody really likes the Copenhagen interpretation. I don't even think Neil's Boore liked the Copenhagen interpretation, but it was his, so he guarded it with all his might. There's the bomb interpretation of um pilot waves. That's another interpretation of quantum mechanics to explain this whole
1:40:24like you know why is quantum mechanics so weird. The other way is to use many worlds. This was established at Princeton University. It was actually his PhD thesis under his PhD adviser John Wheeler who is a huge part of physics in general figure seminal figure. um you know the the PhD adviser of Richard Fineman and things like that, but this one really I think he had a lot to do with because John Wheeler was the type of guy who would be like you know what I will let you work on this weird problem and I think this is physics you know um this is the idea that the universe is governed by a single continuously evolving universal
1:41:05wave function. Meaning the Schroinger equation is what it is. Okay, let's not talk about the collapse of the wave function. What if the wave function just continued being a wave function, but we were just in the part of the wave function where the cat died or lived when it comes to Schroinger's cat, right? >> We don't have to talk about the the collapse into the cat living or dead. both exist in these many worlds but we are in the part of the wave function that we observe because we are entangled with the system that we are observing huge deal um he was run out of physics
1:41:45by Neils Boore and the likes and he you know he was worried about his job so he took a job at the Pentagon it's a huge huge loss for physics in general because I think Everett um Hugh Everett who was the who was the guy who made this theory would have been incredible to have in the physics fold. >> Huge loss for physics. Huge gain for the Marvel universe which has made billions. >> Yeah. >> Off of Hugh Everett. >> Off off of Mr. Everett. 1957 discovery of the columner organization of the neoortex. >> Yes. This is the cortical column. Whenever we think about the human cortex or really the neoortex, we always think
1:42:25about the organization in terms of a cortical column. There are layers in the neoort neoortex. Layer five parameal neurons do this. Layer three parameal neurons sort of talk back and forth. Um