Quantum Cascade Lasers: Federico Capasso on Curiosity and Bell Labs
632nm1 Huhti 2025

Quantum Cascade Lasers: Federico Capasso on Curiosity and Bell Labs

In this episode, physicist Federico Capasso recounts his winding path from struggling undergrad to pioneering inventor of the quantum cascade laser. He reveals how openness, daring ideas, and the bottom-up ethos at Bell Labs led to breakthroughs that redefined semiconductor research.

Capasso also discusses the blurred lines between basic and applied science, the importance of nurturing curiosity, and the serendipitous moments that propelled his career. From avalanche photodiodes to metasurfaces to quantum biology, he offers a fascinating look at how big discoveries often begin with a simple spark of wonder.

Jaksot(44)

How Visual Experience Rewires the Brain | Mark Bear on Neuroplasticity

How Visual Experience Rewires the Brain | Mark Bear on Neuroplasticity

How does experience rewire the brain—and why is vision the ideal system for understanding neuroplasticity?In this episode, we speak with Mark Bear, MIT neuroscientist and a pioneer in the study of exp...

3 Helmi 1h 55min

Snell's Law, Metasurfaces, and Metalenses  | Federico Capasso

Snell's Law, Metasurfaces, and Metalenses | Federico Capasso

How can flat surfaces shape light as powerfully as bulky lenses?In this episode, we speak with Federico Capasso, Harvard physicist and pioneer of metasurfaces, metalenses, and nanophotonics. Capasso t...

20 Tammi 2h 13min

Graphene, Nanotubes, and Quantum Hall Physics | Philip Kim

Graphene, Nanotubes, and Quantum Hall Physics | Philip Kim

How do electrons behave when they’re confined to a single layer, and why do entirely new laws of physics emerge when dimensions shrink?Papers discussed in this episode:Experimental observation of the ...

6 Tammi 2h 47min

Quantum Matter, Super-conductors, and Black Holes | Subir Sachdev on the SYK Model

Quantum Matter, Super-conductors, and Black Holes | Subir Sachdev on the SYK Model

What makes high-temperature superconductors and “strange metals” some of the most perplexing systems in modern physics?In this episode, we speak with Dr. Subir Sachdev: Harvard physicist and one of th...

23 Joulu 20252h 34min

How to Build Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers | Austin Fowler on Surface Codes + TQEC

How to Build Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers | Austin Fowler on Surface Codes + TQEC

Would we get a quantum computer sooner if everything was open source?In this episode, we speak with Austin Fowler, one of the architects of quantum error correction and a pioneer of the surface code u...

9 Joulu 20251h 50min

Why Syncing Atomic Clocks is Virtually Impossible | Judah Levine on UTC

Why Syncing Atomic Clocks is Virtually Impossible | Judah Levine on UTC

Why is syncing atomic clocks still one of the hardest problems in physics and engineering?In this episode, we speak with Judah Levine—legendary NIST physicist and one of the key architects of modern t...

26 Marras 20252h 4min

Can We Predict History Like the Weather? | Peter Turchin on Cliodynamics

Can We Predict History Like the Weather? | Peter Turchin on Cliodynamics

Why do civilizations rise, prosper, and then collapse? Here's what the math tells us.In this episode, we sit down with Peter Turchin, complexity scientist and founder of the field of cliodynamics, whi...

4 Marras 20251h 18min

Why Do Quantum Computers Make So Many Mistakes? | Mikhail Lukin on Quantum Error Correction

Why Do Quantum Computers Make So Many Mistakes? | Mikhail Lukin on Quantum Error Correction

You can’t copy a qubit. So how do quantum computers remember anything?In this episode, we sit down with Mikhail Lukin, Harvard physicist and co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative, whose lab is...

21 Loka 20251h

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