I’m not suggesting than all books on animals be replaced by physics for babies books, but we could maybe replace a few. A child today will probably spend their entire life closer to computer than they will an animal of comparable size. In your phone lives a few billion transistors making up, by the standards of only decade ago anyway, a supercomputer. Why? Why are there more books about puffins than there are puffins and no books about transistors when you are probably sitting on a billion of them right now. Do you know what these birds are? My children seem to know and can identify the difference between a penguin and a puffin. So we are left with nonfiction, which for baby books is limited solely to only a few types of reference material. Fiction and fairy tales serve many purposes and, besides, variety is the spice of life. What book should it be? First, I don’t think it should replace fiction. Then, Quantum Physics for Babies needs to replace a book. Suppose a parent does read to their child and has no time to add a new book to the rotation. Most say it doesn’t even matter what it is, just read. The unanimous advice for new parents is to read to your newborn. But I’ve already had people say, “we all had a good laugh, then I started to read it and there was real quantum physics inside.” Many adults even claimed they learned something. It was a challenge and there is still probably room for improvement. The goal became clear enough: how to fill a baby book out with short sentences, no jargon and a coherent description of quantum physics. In the end, I put real thought and effort into the content. But quantum physics - yeah - people seem to agree that is worth being more than a joke, and hopefully I knew something about it. Why not “contract law for babies” or “geopolitical policy for babies”? Though, the only person in the world that needs to read such a book is too busy tweeting insults at women. I’ve joked with various people about making other goofy “for babies” books. What I didn’t expect was this nerdy friend getting a copy. So I knew that at least a few people would buy it as a gag gift for a nerdy friend having a baby. Adults, on the other hand, love the juxtaposition of quantum physics with “for babies”. I’ve never seen a child laugh at the title of the book. Of course, the level of humour I’m talking about is not at all for the advertised audience. There is no denying that I saw the irony as good for a laugh the first time the title popped into my head. So, hopefully you didn’t come to this talk with too many expectations and you’ll leave a little happier then when you came in. Humor often defies expectation and happiness ensues. (Einstein didn’t think it was very funny - but, then again, he never liked quantum physics.) Happiness is the difference between your reality and your expectations. I laugh with my partner, I laugh with my children, I laugh with my friends, and I laugh with other scientists. Humor plays a crucial part of almost every aspect of my life. Someone that has known me for only a short time probably wouldn’t be too surprised that I was voted “class clown” in high school. But let me start at the same place I start most things, with a joke.
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