Physicist Bob Coecke: 'It's easier to convince kids than adults about quantum mechanics'

Belgian physicist and musician Prof Bob Coecke, 55, wants to teach quantum physics to a mass audience. The paradox-filled theory that describes the microscopic realm has become a staple of science fiction, from Marvel's Ant-Man to the multiple Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once. It's famously bizarre and, in the UK, the subject is mostly reserved for undergraduates specialising in physics because it requires grappling with complicated maths. But Coecke, a former Oxford professor, has devised a maths-free framework using diagrams for total beginners, outlined in Quantum in Pictures, his book with Dr Stefano Gogioso that was published earlier this year. Over the summer, they ran an education experiment, teaching the pictorial method to UK schoolchildren – who then beat the average exam scores of Oxford University's postgraduate physics students.