Light Photographed As Particle-Wave

The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and wave

Light behaves both as a particle and as a wave. Since the days of Einstein, scientists have been trying to directly observe both of these aspects of light at the same time. Now, scientists at EPFL have succeeded in capturing the first-ever snapshot of this dual behavior.

It’s very early in the morning as I type this and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.

Video explanation after the break.

Whenever I’ve read about the dual-slit experiment — which has been many, many times — I’ve always wondered if the photons have preferential spots they head towards. So that, in effect, if you could slow it all down to seeing one photon at a time, you would see each photon “pick its spot” just as people do on a bus, ferry, train, plane when free first-come, first-served seating is available. Some people want the window, some the front, some the back, some the aisle.

But apparently photons don’t do that. But I still wonder if science is certain about that. Stochastic processes fascinate me. I think they all have loopholes yet to be discovered. And that discovery will be the biggest in the history of mankind because it will lead to unprecedented breakthroughs that, at base, seem maddeningly simple. So simple, they were never even considered.

Don’t even get me started on superconductivity and my hypothesis about “happy electrons” …

Same-day update: It’s not only very early in the morning, it’s too early for my brain to work. That “news” was back in March. I’m surprised I never posted about it before. But I did find this: Double-Slit Photons. And hell, I really need to get back to this: A Seminal And Revolutionary Paper.