BUCKYBALLS鈥攎olecules made up of 60 carbon atoms鈥攃an behave like
waves, blurring the boundary between the everyday world and the realm of quantum
mechanics.
Markus Arndt and his colleagues at the University of Vienna sent buckyballs
through a diffraction grating. A detector beyond the grating showed a clear
interference pattern, indicating wavelike behaviour (Nature, vol 104, p
680). 鈥淭he interference pattern can only be explained if, in effect, each
molecule goes through at least two of the openings,鈥� says Anton Zeilinger, who
supervised the research.
Zeilinger foresees similar results with objects as large as viruses. 鈥淧eople
think that quantum is small and classical is large,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut really, the
quantum world has no boundary.鈥�
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