Living in The Future

From this week's Science:

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Controlled Single-Photon Emission
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The ability to deliver single photons on demand is an important requirement for quantum information processing and secure quantum communication. Reproducibility, in terms of the photon states from one to the other, as well as ease of implementation must also be considered for practical uses. Existing single photon sources generally meet one of these requirements, but not both. (p. 454) present an approach, based on exciting a single, optically trapped rubidium atom with short laser pulses, that can meet both
requirements. Each pulse stimulates the atom to emit a single photon.


There are a number of mind-numbing concepts in this brief paragraph, but "the atom" in the last sentence, mentioned as one might say "the apple" or "the wrench", is the one that got me. Look around your room. Then think about just how small an atom is. And then ponder that a monkey (that has only had any real technology for a few thousand years) has gotten down to that scale. Trying to do that, while keeping the time scale of evolution in my mind, makes my head explode.