Margarita Khokhlova

A laser beam hits an atom, and an electron is knocked loose. It accelerates, returns, and, crashing into the atom, emits a flash of light — a harmonic. If there are two light beams and they are crossed like an intersection, the electron can choose different routes. In the new experiment, the two beams had comparable strength and were directed at right angles.

Imagine a carousel with two types of seats: some spin clockwise, others counterclockwise. If you push all of them at once, the carousel jerks but stays in place. That's how a Weyl semimetal crystal works: electrons are born in pairs—'left' and 'right'—and their contributions to current cancel each other, like two identical motors running in opposite directions.