Particles Walk Through Walls While Physicists Watch

Foxx · May 21, 2012

Electrons bound to an atom can sometimes escape,
even if they lack the requisite energy, through a
phenomenon known as quantum tunneling.
CREDIT: Dreamstime

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Sometimes, particles can pass through walls.
Though it sounds like science fiction, the phenomenon is well documented and even understood under the bizarre rules that govern the microscopic world called quantum mechanics.
Now, scientists have measured the timing of this passing-through-walls trick more accurately than ever before, and report their results in today's (May 17) issue of the journal Nature.
The process is called quantum tunneling, and occurs when a particle passes through a barrier that it seemingly shouldn't be able to. In this case, scientists measured electrons escaping from atoms without having the necessary energy to do so. In the normal world around us, this would be like a child jumping into the air, and somehow clearing a whole house. [Graphic: Nature's Tiniest Particles Explained]

Quantum tunneling is possible because of the wave-nature of matter. Confounding as it sounds, in the quantum world, particles often act likes waves of water rather than billiard balls. This means that an electron doesn't exist in a single place at a single time and with a single energy, but rather as a wave of probabilities.

Please go to the link to read the rest of the article
http://www.livescience.com/20380-particles-quantum-tunneling-timing.html

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Particles Walk Through Walls While Physicists Watch

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