Martin Frimmer

An ordinary sensor is like a scale that always shakes a little on its own. Even in total silence and at zero temperature, every particle jitters — this is quantum jitter, and it limits the precision of any measurement.

A billiard ball hangs in midair. Tiny peas shoot at it from a blowgun. Each hit is barely perceptible, but if the ball is very light and barely trembles from heat, you can make out individual nudges. That's essentially the setup: a glass sphere the size of a bacterium levitates in a vacuum while a narrow beam of xenon atoms flies at it.