THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE

摘要

Complex processes such as chemical reactions and photosynthesis involve the transport of energy. The mechanisms of how the energy migrates, the influence of the surrounding environment, or the extent to which quantum mechanics affects the process remain unclear. Guenter et al. (p. 954, published online 7 November; see the Perspective by Donley) found that a cloud of cold atoms suitably prepared and decorated with "impurity" Rydberg atoms could be used to image the transport of excitations between excited Rydberg atoms directly. This ability to tune the influence of the background environment may help in the study of the coherent transport of energy in complex many-body systems.