Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 21:56 UTC
Schrödinger’s Cat: A cat, along with a flask containing a poison, is placed in a sealed box 
shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. The flask is shattered, releasing the poison, if a Geiger counter detects radiation. Quantum mechanics suggests that after a while the cat is simultaneously alive and dead, in a quantum superposition of coexisting alive and dead states. Yet when we look in the box we expect to see the cat either alive or dead, not in a mixture of alive and dead.
I’m working at home this week and probably next week. Which means that I am simultaneously in a state of either wearing pants or not wearing pants. So if anyone phones me, remember that I may be answering in a serious tone of voice, but I may not be properly dressed.
