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While Ant-Man floats in the endless expanse of the Marvel Universe Quantum Realm, scientists like Professor Nadya Mason at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign work diligently to discover what the rules of quantum mechanics really are.

Professor Mason’s January 13 Science Sundays talk at Ohio State is titled “Going Through the Quantum Tunnel” and she “was inspired by several things in this talk.”

“One is that my own research is on quantum mechanical properties of materials and devices: how do electronics change when you consider quantum mechanics?” Mason explained. “The other proximate inspiration from my talk is that I saw the most recent Ant Man movie. In the movie, quantum mechanics plays a huge part. There’s a quantum tunnel, and they go into the quantum realm, and they can’t get back out. I thought it was really interesting.”

Join us for a discussion of what quantum mechanics is, how it can be used, and the mind-blowing relationships between atoms separated by large distances.