🎉 Today Madison Genslinger presented “Birds Are Quantum” 🦅⚛️ at the 'For the Birds' event in Shelbyville, Indiana, and premiered her new photoluminescent 3D-printed models of electrons and the crystal structures of diamond and niobium! 🎉 Though the children really wanted the models to be squishy they were not 😂 .
Madison explored how quantum mechanics helps explain the colors birds display, how their feathers produce specific colors, photoluminescence in bird feathers and how quantum mechanics may be involved in their migration..
I felt like a magician's stagehand, performing demos in a dark corner for the audience (Madison called me ‘stagehand Alex’ to the audience’s amusement 😂). And, an Uber driver: Shelbyville is 1.5 hrs away 😂.
She also introduced the audience to the basic electronic structure of diamond and metals, using models she designed and built herself, inspired by the research she proposed when she first joined our group. You can learn more about them here: https://alexbgeorgescu.com/science/2026/9/28/photoluminescent-electronion-crystal-structure-models
It was especially wonderful seeing her share her models and science with the children after the talk!
And, of course, there were actual birds 🦉 from the Indiana Raptor Center afterward!
Setting things up for Madison’s talk.