QUANTUM CENTRE TO PROBE NATURE'S WEIRDEST SECRETS

Canadian research will probe some of the deepest and strangest properties of the world within the atom in a new centre for the study of quantum matter. Quantum matter is the basic science behind everything from the next generation of supercomputers to power lines that can transmit electricity without losing any of it. The Clay Riddell Centre for Quantum Matter, announced by the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., is being funded by a $10M donation from the Riddell Family Foundation. Researcher Tim Hsieh says the work keeps him in touch with experimental scientists, yet he still relies on what he calls daydreaming — the ability to come up with new ideas that sound off-the-wall, but may lead to fresh ways of understanding the world. The centre is at the forefront of such work.