Two physicists just won the Nobel Prize for their work isolating quantum particles. WTF does that mean? Here are some GIFs that will explain it all.
Quantum Particles Are Like This Balloon
They do all this cool, inexplicable stuff that scientists would d like to study. The problem is that as soon as they interact with non-quantum particles (represented here by cats), they pop back into regular, boring Newtonian physics.
Source: gifs.gifbin.com
The tricky thing is to isolate them in a way that doesn't expose them to non-quantum particles, but also lets you see what's going on.
That way you can get a really close look at every change, like so.
Source: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m827gmxiye1qham4bo1_500.gif
David Wineland does that by trapping ions and bombarding them with photons.
The portable toilet represents an ion.
Source: s3-ec.buzzfed.com
Serge Haroche, the other winner, did the same thing by trapping photons and sending ions after them.
Kind of like this snake. If it were an ion.
Source: gifrific.com
