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Ambitious book on quantum physics still fails to be accessible

A new book on quantum physics is pleasingly full of cutting-edge topics. Yet it isn't the accessible work it promised to be

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

4 June 2025

Dane physicist Niels Bohr, pictured in his laboratory, received the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the structure of atoms. — Niels Bohr in his lab at the University of Copenhagen
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Why Nobody Understands Quantum Physics
Frank Verstraete and Céline Broeckaert (Macmillan (UK, on sale; US, 10 February 2026))

Quantum physics isn’t just complicated – after 100 years, there is an awful lot of it to understand. This makes writing an accessible yet comprehensive book about the topic a challenge in both explaining it well and finding space to describe all the parts of our world it has touched.

Frank Verstraete and Céline Broeckaert’s Why Nobody Understands Quantum Physics (And Everyone Needs to Know Something About It)…

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Ambitious book on quantum physics still fails to be accessible