Images Dated 25th January 1999

Art of Schrodingers Cat experiment

Schrodinger's Cat. Computer artwork depicting the famous "Schrodinger's Cat" thought experiment. The image shows a cat both dead (grey) and alive (ginger) inside a box on a starfield background. The orbitals of a radioactive isotope are superimposed over the cat. In this hypothetical situation, the cat is thought to be both alive and dead until observed. This is because a quantum event (the decay of a radioac- tive particle) is set up to trigger the release of a lethal poison from a vial (not seen here) that kills the cat. According to quantum physics, the unstable particle exists in an intermediate "probabilistic" state until it is observed

© VOLKER STEGER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Winfield Williams Launch

F1 TESTING, BARCELONA, 25th JAN 99
Ralf Schumacher driving the new FW21 Winfield Williams Formula One car for the first time at the Catalunya circuit, Barcelona.
Pic Steve Etherington