Scientific American Quantum Shorts Video Winners

In late 2012, Scientific American held a competition, asking filmmakers to created three-minute videos “inspired by fundamental concepts in quantum physics.” In January, the winning vides were announced and we think they are worth sharing with our readers. The judges included physicist Lisa Randall, New Scientist editor-in-chief Jeremy Webb, and Ben Bowie, executive producer of the Discovery Channel’s Emmy-nominated Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking.

The winning video, above, is Quantum Daughter, a parallel universe comedy about Ernst Rutherford meeting a living version of his daughter, who has tragically died in his own universe. Eileen Rutherford seeks 100 points of ID so that she can renew her Quantum Computer phone contract as her really smart phone provider aggressively seeks the return of their product, pursuing her across the multiverse.

There was a tie for second place between Alice in Quantumland, a love story about a physics student who finds her Romeo with a little help from quantum physics, and Heisenberg, an amusing short in which two women make observations about the man, Heisenberg. Finally, the runner-up in the People’s Choice category was The Cat, which follows the investigation behind who killed Schroedinger’s cat.