Despite centuries of scientific scrutiny, the ways in which light and matter affect each other remain only partly understood. To get a look at the most fundamental of light-matter interactions, physicists have been trapping one atom and one photon together between tiny mirrors (SN: 3/18/00, p. 191: Available to subscribers at Photon-in-a-box slings atom into orbit). In such experiments in quantum physics, the photon and atom repeatedly merge and disengage, forming a blended entity of matter and light.
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