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You're in a room, and the chief scientist comes up to you and whispers a crazy idea in your ear.

What do you do?

[laughs] Oh, depends on what the idea was.

I mean, I'm up for shenanigans, but I do have a line.

[laughs]

[laughs] Oh, you're gonna find that line today.

[laughs] Quite possibly.

Um, well, that is exactly what happened to Professor Warwick Bowen, a quantum physicist at the University of Queensland.

He had this happen to him a couple of years ago.

Yeah, it's a funny story, actually.

So the, the whole thing began in 2023 when Australia's chief scientist at the time, Cathy Foley, at a function, tapped me on the shoulder and said to me, "Warwick, I want the Brisbane Olympics to be the Quantum Olympics." And my [laughs] and my reaction was, she's the chief scientist, so I'm positive.

But internally, I'm thinking, "Quantum sport? How does that all work together?"

I mean, that's a really good question.

That's, that's my question.

How can you combine sport with quantum physics? [laughs]

They don't seem like they go together, do they?

It's a strange one, yeah.

So the Olympic Games are being hosted in Queensland in 2032.

But how are quantum physics and sport going to be combined for these games?

It is a weird one, and I don't think it's very intuitive.

And, and Warwick didn't think it was intuitive either.

And he's a physicist.

Yeah, yeah.

This is his literal job.

So quantum mechanics are the laws of physics that govern tiny little things, atoms, stuff like that.