We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors

This week, from 2020:

My life seemed to be getting busier, faster: I felt constantly short of time – so I stepped outside it for a day and a night and did nothing

Ian Sample speaks to the theoretical physicist Sean Carroll about his mission to demystify quantum mechanics. It won’t be easy, though, as Carroll’s favoured interpretation of this fundamental theory – the ‘many worlds’ interpretation – results in a possibly infinite number of parallel universes