Wolfson GBF releases acclaimed new book, ‘Portals to a New Reality’

In his acclaimed new book ‘Portals to a New Reality’, Wolfson GBF Professor Vlatko Vedral argues that we are on the brink of a new revolution in physics.

From the publisher: ‘Professor Vedral first explains the state of the art of our current understanding when it comes to quantum mechanics and general relativity. Then he shows how quantum information theory has opened up radical new avenues, giving us a series of extraordinary experiments that could upend physics. They can sound very strange – one essentially involves entangling a human with Schrödinger’s cat – but they lay bare the elements of our theories that are particularly problematic, such as the widespread belief that nothing truly exists unless it is observed. At present these take the form of fascinating thought experiments, but nothing, save inertia and a lack of ambition, stands in our way.’

‘Some of the thought experiments aim to test how quantum physics alters the concepts of space and time that are fundamental to understanding general relativity, while others explore how the key principle of general relativity – the so-called equivalence principle – could impact quantum physics and lead to its modification. They are all underpinned by our understanding of what quantum physics is telling us about reality and how it applies to macroscopic objects.  Our rapid development of quantum technologies has now put us within a close range of performing these experiments, and rewriting our understanding of the Universe.’

Learn more about the book here.

You can also watch Vlatko’s recent lecture at the Oxford Martin School here.

Vlatko is a professor of quantum information. He has published over 400 research papers on various topics in quantum physics and quantum computing and is one of the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers. He has given numerous invited plenary and public talks during his career.

He was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2007, the World Scientific Medal and Prize in 2009, the Marko Jaric Award in 2010 and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2017 and a member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is consulting the World Economic Forum on the Future of Computation. Vlatko is the author of 4 textbooks and 3 popular books, the latest one being “Portals to a New Reality” (Basic Books and Penguin, 2025).