Researchers in Germany have split the unsplittable and separated a single atom into two halves, pulling it apart and putting it back together again. The laws of quantum mechanics allow objects to exist in several states simultaneously and researchers from the University of Bonn were able to keep a single atom concurrently in two places that were more than ten micrometres apart, before putting the atom back together. They hope to build quantum mechanics bridges by letting the atom touch nearby atoms when pulled apart so it works like a bridge span between two pillars.
展开▼