Wave-particle duality in action—big molecules surf on their own waves

Enlarge / Phthalocyanine, the big molecule used in these experiments. (credit: Wikipedia)

Wave-particle duality is a fundamental fact of the Universe. But we don't see many objects moving around as waves. This is why it hurts when a golf ball hits you on the head: you and the golf ball are both behaving like particles.

In principle, that wave-like nature is there to be observed. Researchers have now demonstrated that with a couple of relatively heavy, complicated molecules.

The wave-particle debate started out in the time of Isaac Newton. Water waves were just beginning to be understood, and a series of experiments revealed that light had more to it than meets the eye. So is light a stream of particles or a wave? The debate raged on until Thomas Young presented the results of his classic double slit experiment in 1803, showing that light is a wave.

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