theSIGNAL SCIENCE
16 June 2026
"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."
NEWSBUSINESSTECHNOLOGYWORLDSCIENCECULTUREENVIRONMENTSPORT
Science

Oxford's Cat Is Stranger Than Schrödinger Imagined

A University of Oxford team has built quantum superpositions from deeply nonclassical components, opening strange new doors for computing and sensing.

Picture a cat that is alive and dead at the same time. Now imagine that the cat itself is made of smaller cats, each one already half-impossible. That is roughly what physicists at the University of Oxford have achieved — and it is considerably weirder than the thought experiment Erwin Schrödinger sketched on a napkin in 1935. Quantum superposition is the rule, not the exception, at the subatomic level.

Atoms, photons, and even the physical motion of particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously. Scientists have long been able to create so-called "cat states," in which a quantum harmonic oscillator — a system that can occupy many energy levels, describing everything from vibrating molecules to trapped light — is split into two wave packets moving in opposite directions. Those wave packets are called coherent states, which are the closest thing quantum mechanics offers to ordinary, classical motion. They are strange, but they are the tame end of the quantum zoo.

The Oxford team has now pushed far beyond that boundary.

Photo: Braňo / Unsplash
A single trapped ion glows in an Oxford laboratory, holding two quantum systems in one particle.
Discuss
  • What does Schrödinger's cat thought experiment actually teach us about quantum measurement?
  • Why might a quantum computer that goes beyond binary logic be more powerful than a qubit-based one?
  • How could ultra-precise quantum sensors change medical imaging or our understanding of the brain?
  • Is it meaningful to say a particle 'exists' in multiple states, or is that just a limit of human language?
  • Should governments prioritise funding for fundamental quantum physics, even when applications are decades away?
Science

War's worst tactics keep kids out of school

UNESCO counts roughly 250 million children who are out of school right now. That number is already alarming — but a new study reveals something sharper hiding inside it. Researchers analysed nearly 700,000 children across 30 sub-Saharan African countries and found a crucial distinction. General conflict disrupts schooling, yes. …
  • Should protecting children in conflict zones be treated as a military obligation?
∞
Rather than constructing cat-like states from coherent-state wave packets, the researchers developed a technique that combines a broad range of quantum components that are already highly nonclassical.
University of Oxford Research Team, Department of Physics
Science

Europe's clever trick to cut global emissions

The EU must slash greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040 — but here's the twist: 5% of that target can be achieved *outside* European borders. Researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research think that sounds like cheating. It doesn't have to be. …
  • Should wealthy nations pay others to cut emissions, or is that avoiding responsibility?
WORLD · Science
Ancient DNA shared with Neanderthals may explain human language
AMERICAS · Science
Faster biological aging consistently linked to poverty and discrimination
ASIA · Science
Giant underground neutrino detector brings scientists closer to cracking the neutrino puzzle
AFRICA · Science
Lucy’s hunter revealed: Giant crocodile terrorized early human ancestors
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
superpositionnonclassical
coherent statesenrollment collapsesdemonstrably
jurisdictionalwave packets
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Gerunds and infinitives — complex patterns (stop to do vs stop doing)
Some verbs change meaning depending on whether they are followed by a gerund or an infinitive — for example, 'stop doing' means to cease an activity, while 'stop to do' means to pause in order to do something else. Similar distinctions apply to verbs like remember, forget, try, and go on.
to calculate · calculating · to detect · detecting · to recruit · recruiting · to achieve
  1. Parents in conflict zones have stopped whether the journey to school is safe and are now keeping children at home entirely.
  2. The Oxford physicists went on superpositions far beyond what Schrödinger had originally imagined.
  3. Armed groups did not stop child soldiers even when international pressure mounted.
  4. Ultra-precise sensors may one day try gravitational waves with far greater accuracy than current instruments allow.
  5. The EU's climate negotiators stopped the cost of the Jurisdictional Reward Funds and concluded it was remarkably affordable.
  6. Researchers remember that a 90% emissions cut by 2040 would be impossible without some form of international cooperation.
  7. Scientists working with trapped ions went on a new family of quantum superpositions richer than anything previously demonstrated.
3DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS
Complete each phrase with the correct preposition. All from today's articles.
  1. Scientists have long been able to split a system ___ two wave packets moving in opposite directions.
  2. The implications stretch ___ quantum computers to ultra-precise sensors.
  3. Quantum uncertainty is redistributed unevenly ___ the system.
  4. Parents are calculating whether their child will be taken — they are not simply fleeing ___ bombs.
  5. Payments would be made ___ when governments demonstrably tighten their own climate policies.
  6. The experiment was carried ___ using the motion of a single trapped ion.
4CRITICAL THINKING
The Jurisdictional Reward Funds proposal and the Oxford quantum research both involve investing resources today for uncertain future gains. How should policymakers weigh the relative urgency of these two areas of funding, and what criteria beyond cost-per-tonne or breakthrough potential should guide such decisions?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
The three articles each describe a situation where established boundaries — physical, humanitarian, or political — are being deliberately pushed or redefined. Choose two of the stories and argue whether crossing those boundaries represents genuine progress or an evasion of deeper problems.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • unusual→→
  • disrupts→→
  • worried→→
  • reduces→→
  • interesting→→
  • fleeing→→
  • tighten→→
8SPEAKING
  1. Which article's findings surprised you most, and why?
  2. Can scientific breakthroughs ever justify high financial costs?
  3. Who bears greater responsibility when children miss school — governments or parents?
  4. Is rewarding climate action abroad a sign of strength or weakness?
  5. Should scientists communicate uncertainty more openly to the public?