Science: The Breakthroughs of 2010 and Insights of the Decade

January 1, 2011

Until this year, all human-made objects have moved according to the laws of classical mechanics. Back in March, however, a group of researchers designed a gadget that moves in ways that can only be described by quantum mechanics—the set of rules that governs the behavior of tiny things like molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles. In recognition of the conceptual ground this experiment breaks, the ingenuity behind it, and its many potential applications, Science has called this discovery the most significant scientific advance of 2010.

And how might it challenge our sense of reality? Perhaps experiments that try to put a macroscopic object in a state in which it’s literally in two slightly different places at the same time—an achievement that many atomic and subatomic particles can perform—will eventually reveal why something as big as a human can’t be in two places at the same time.

“Mind you, physicists still haven’t achieved a two-places-at-once state with a tiny object like this one,” said Cho. “But now that they have reached the simplest state of quantum motion, it seems a whole lot more obtainable—more like a matter of ‘when’ than ‘if.’”

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Filed under: quantum mechanics