How a single atom contains the entire quantum Universe (opens in new tab)

If you wanted to uncover the secrets of the Universe for yourself, all you’d have to do is interrogate the Universe in a way that compelled nature itself to provide the answers to your deepest questions in a fashion that was comprehensible to you. When any two quanta of energy interact — irrespective of their properties, including whether they’re particles or antiparticles, massive or massless, fermions or bosons, etc. — the result of that interaction has the potential to inform you about the...