91av

by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

I started my colleague Karmela Padavic-Callaghan’s first book, , with trepidation. How could they deliver on its subtitle, “a life according to quantum physics”? I finished it with both a better understanding of all things quantum and a deeper desire to understand myself after reading Karmela’s own thoughtful journey as a queer, millennial immigrant.

This is a unique blend of memoir and science writing, in which Karmela interweaves growing up in Croatia, moving to New York, doing a physics PhD, teaching in high school and working as a 91av reporter with big physics concepts.

So, how do you make links between, say, indefinite causality and a life-threatening tooth infection, or wave-particle duality and the realisation that you are queer? Somehow, Karmela does, and it all works to create a book that is clear and friendly on a scientific level, and candid and insightful on a personal one.