Tweezers made with laser beams can hold and move single atoms
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Gravity’s effects on the quantum realm have remained a mystery until now, but experiments using lasers as tweezers may allow researchers to assess how Earth’s gravity affects atoms that tick like a clock.
At extremely low temperatures, a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, quantum effects cause atoms to behave more like “matter waves” than particles. Physicists have long exploited this phenomenon: by colliding different matter waves and measuring the resulting ripples, they can pinpoint forces…
