Felix Flicker is a theoretical physicist working on the quantum underpinnings of matter. Born in Devon, he studied at Oxford, the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, Canada, and Bristol University, where he completed his PhD. Now a physics lecturer at Cardiff University, he is also a kung fu teacher and former British champion of shuai jiao (Chinese wrestling). Flicker, 35, has just published his first book, The Magick of Matter: Crystals, Chaos and the Wizardry of Physics, exploring the often overlooked field of condensed matter physics, which underlies our modern world.
What prompted you to write this book?
Condensed matter physics is the biggest area in physics – about a third of all physicists work on it – but nobody’s ever heard of it. One reason is because it’s the study of familiar stuff – states of matter and their transformations. It’s also practical: it leads to most of the technology around us these days. Being practical and familiar seems to be at odds with being magical. I wrote the book to address that.
