Very Precise Measurements

The journal Nature reports a measurement of interference of single photons, limited in precision only by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Find out more about this measurement in the following articles (some of which require subscriptions):

• The most accurate measurement ever made
• Quantum Optics: Kitten Catch Phase
• Entanglement-free Heisenberg-limited phase estimation

Another report in Science Daily (Line Between Quantum And Classical Worlds Is At Scale Of Hydrogen Molecule and The Simplest Double Slit: Interference and Entanglement in Double Photoionization of H2) demonstrates how much interaction is needed between the macroscopic classical universe and the microscopic quantum universe in order for quantum decoherence to take place. The results indicate that this happens at roughly the scale of a hydrogen atom.

Both findings, in my opinion, have strong implications for the field of nanotechnology, as making precise, controllable, meaningful measurements at the scale of an atom, or even about subatomic particles, will be necessary to properly craft or operate nanotechnological devices.