Scientists Put 7,000 Atoms in Two Places at Once

Imagine being in two places at the same time. That's exactly what physicists at the University of Vienna just achieved with clusters of 7,000 atoms, shattering the previous record by ten times.

The team placed tiny balls of sodium metal into what scientists call a "superposition," a bizarre quantum state where something exists in multiple locations at once. Instead of traveling like a tiny billiard ball through their experiment, each cluster spread out like a wave across 133 nanometers.

This isn't just weird science for its own sake. It tackles one of physics' biggest mysteries: why do tiny particles play by quantum rules while everyday objects don't?

"It's a fantastic result," says Sandra Eibenberger-Arias, a physicist at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin. These clusters are as massive as a protein or small virus particle, proving that quantum mechanics still works at surprisingly large scales.

The experiment took two years of painstaking work in a basement laboratory. Lead researcher Sebastian Pedalino spent thousands of hours staring at flat lines and noise before finally seeing the signal. Any stray light, gas molecule, or slight misalignment could destroy the delicate quantum state.

The breakthrough matters for practical reasons too. Quantum computers need to maintain millions of objects in quantum states to solve real problems. If nature somehow made these states collapse past a certain size, it could doom quantum computing's future.

Why This Inspires

This discovery reminds us that the universe still holds surprises beyond our everyday experience. What seemed impossible 15 years ago is now reality, thanks to researchers who refused to give up despite thousands of hours watching nothing but noise.

The Vienna team is already planning their next challenge: putting actual biological matter, like viruses, into superposition. While viruses aren't technically alive, succeeding would push quantum physics into completely new territory.

Fifteen years ago, Pedalino's co-author Stefan Gerlich thought today's experiment was impossible.