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A Journey Into the Surreal Realm Where David Lynch Meets Quantum Physics

In the hands of filmmaker Andrzej Dragan, Lynchian otherworlds have a lot to do with subatomic particles.
Image: still frame/Physics #1, Time Dilation

Just yesterday we were talking about the concept of "time dilation," in which the fabric of space-time warps under various circumstances due to the universal constancy of the speed of light (the speed of light stays the same no matter how fast you're moving). As an explainer, it turns out that I have nothing on Andrzej Dragan, most certainly "the only quantum physics PhD who's also photographed David Lynch holding a chicken," in the words of Motherboard's sister site the Creator's Project, which recently published a Q+A with the Polish artist and scientist that's well worth reading.

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His film below, Physics #1: Time Dialation, the first in a series exploring quantum mechanics, is as strange (and indeed as Lynchian as anything) as it is illustrative, or perhaps even a bit more so:

If that wasn't quite enough, in the second installment Dragan takes on the highly counterintuitive nature of subatomic particles.

As for the dark, otherworldly tone of the pieces, Dragan told TCP, "Most of the elements of the truth that we, as scientists, discovered, are not hard to understand—but they are hard to believe." Physics itself is surreal.