VISUAL ARCHIVE / IMAGE STORY
Small Beside a Protein, Large for a Wave
The sodium clusters are nanometer-scale objects made of thousands of atoms.
A conceptual scale comparison between the sodium nanocluster and familiar biological structures. The experiment used clusters roughly 8 nanometers across, containing thousands of sodium atoms and weighing more than many proteins. Illustration is conceptual rather than an atom-for-atom structural reconstruction.
THE OBSERVATION
What we can actually see.
The published experiment used clusters around eight nanometers across and masses greater than 170,000 daltons for its discriminating interference test. Mass and size comparisons help explain scale, not biological function.
THE ILLUSTRATION
What the artwork imagines.
The lineup beside familiar molecules is an approximate graphic. Individual sodium atoms and protein shapes are not reconstructed from microscopy in this image.
FROM THE ILLUSTRATED ARTICLE
The story that inspired it.
The article explains how a sodium-cluster interferometer tests quantum coherence without putting a literal cat into the apparatus. The sodium clusters are nanometer-scale objects made of thousands of atoms.
Read They Put 7,000 Atoms in a Schrödinger’s Cat StateCHECK THE RECORD
The image interprets the research below. Follow the original work for the measurements and limits behind the scene.
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