Abstract
In 1979, in Heidelberg, Germany, Dr. Werner Neuhauser looked up from JL the eyepiece of a low-power microscope and fancied he heard the ghost of Mach whispering: “Now I believe in atoms.” Neuhauser had just glimpsed what appeared to be a bright blue star floating in the void; it was a single Barium ion, caught in an electromagnetic trap and fluorescing in a laser’s beam. Thus transpired the first observation of an isolated atom using a lens; soon one would be glimpsed with the naked eye as well. [140]
We never experiment with just one electron or atom … any more than we can raise Ichthyosauria in the zoo.
—Erwin Schrödinger, 1952
Here, right now; in a little cylindrical domain ... in the center of our Penning trap resides positron (or anti-electron) Priscilla, who has been giving spontaneous and command performances of her quantum jump ballets for the last three months.
—Announcement from Hans Dehmelt’s laboratory in Seattle, 1984
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Schrödinger quote: Brit. J. Philos. Sci. Vol III No. 11, November 1952.
Dehmelt’s Nobel lecture was published in Rev. Mod. Phys. 62:3, (1990), p. 525–530.
Van Dyck et al., Phys. Rev. D 34: 3, (1986), p. 722–734;
H. Dehmelt, Phys. Scripta T22, (1988), p. 102–110
H. Dehmelt, Z. Phys. D. 10, (1988), p. 127–134.
Dehmelt Phys. Rev. A, 22:3, (1980), p. 1137–1140
For quantum jumps observed see W. Neuhauser and Th. Sauter, Comments At. Mol. Phys 21: 2, (1988), p. 83–95.
Kerson Huang’s paper on electron spin is in Am. J. Phys. 20, (1952), p. 479.
Mott’s article was in Proc. Roy. Soc. A 124, (1929), p. 440;
Proc. Roy. Soc. A 124, pp. 214–219 of Mott and Massey (1965)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Birkhäuser Boston
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wick, D. (1995). The Impossible Observed. In: The Infamous Boundary. Birkhäuser Boston. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5361-7_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5361-7_15
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Boston
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5363-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5361-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive