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Hi, I'm Paul Rudd

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and I play Scott Lang, better known as Ant-Man.

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In my latest movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I get to explore the quantum realm.

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But what you might not know
is the quantum realm is a very real thing,

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and NASA scientists explore it every day.

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So, I have a few questions for the team

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of quantum physicists at NASA.

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Hi, Paul. My name is Dr. Ethan Elliott

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and I'm a quantum physicist working on the Cold Atom Lab,

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NASA's first quantum science laboratory in space.

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And I'm excited to answer your questions.

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But first, what is quantum science?

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Quantum mechanics describes our universe on the smallest scales,

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where tiny particles can also behave like waves, meaning

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they can be in two places at once or they can move through each other.

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Now, what questions do you have for me?

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How does quantum science impact our lives here on Earth?

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Quantum science is behind many of the technologies

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that we use every day, including your phone, computer, GPS,

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or even MRI scanners for medical imaging.

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In the movies, you can shrink down and go into the quantum realm.

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We can't do that.

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But what we can do is make the quantum realm itself bigger.

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And this is the purpose of the Cold Atom Lab,

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which orbits the Earth inside the International Space Station.

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Secondly, how can NASA's

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quantum science help unlock some of the universe's biggest mysteries?

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In recent decades, scientists have come up with

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a new way to study the quantum world.

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Using lasers and magnetic fields,

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the Cold Atom Lab can create macroscopic quantum objects.

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It can amplify quantum effects,

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and then we put these big quantum objects into space

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because that gives them more time to interact with gravity

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because they're floating in orbit

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and not crashing into anything the way they would on Earth.

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And we care about new ways to study gravity because

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dark energy, dark matter, those are just words.

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They're names for gravitational effects that we don't understand.

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In ultracold temperatures, they're like a quantum lens that will

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hopefully one day allow us to see further into the gravitational unknown.

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Studying quantum mechanics with ultracold atoms,

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these are the hardest experiments that you can do on a tabletop on Earth,

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and they're even harder to do in space.

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With the Cold Atom Lab now operating in space,

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some of the achievements that we've been able to demonstrate

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so far are creating the first macroscopic quantum object in orbit.

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We've created the first quantum bubbles, which cannot be done on Earth,

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and we've recently created two simultaneously
existing Bose-Einstein Condensates,

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two large quantum objects with which we can form exotic molecules

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or perform new experiments of gravity.

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For everything that we do know about quantum mechanics,

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there's a lot that we don't know.

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And space opens up new avenues to explore these.

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Thank you, Paul, for your interest in this deep dive into the quantum realm.

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Hopefully together we can inspire the next generation of quantum superheroes