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This memoir is a personal and moving journey through the quantum world

This memoir is a personal and moving journey through the quantum world
New Scientist Wednesday 15 July 2026, 18:00 UTC By Alison Flood 2 min read
Key Points

Entangled Statesby Karmela Padavic-Callaghan I started my colleague Karmela Padavic-Callaghan’s first book, Entangled States, 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.

Entangled States
by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

I started my colleague Karmela Padavic-Callaghan’s first book, Entangled States, 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 New Scientist reporter with big physics concepts.

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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.

[Image text:] ENTANGLED STATES ALIFEACCORDINGTO QUANTUMPHYSICS KARMELA PADAVIC-CALLAGHAN
Statesby Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (PERSON) Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (PERSON) Entangled States (LOCATION) Karmela (PERSON) Croatia (LOCATION) New York (LOCATION)
Originally published by New Scientist Read original →

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