When you throw a ball at a wall, you can be sure it will bounce back at you. You would be extremely surprised if the ball suddenly appeared on the other side of the wall. In quantum mechanics this type of phenomenon is called tunnelling and is exactly the type of phenomenon that has given it a reputation for being bizarre and unintuitive. The 2025 #NobelPrize laureates in physics John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, used a series of experiments to demonstrate that the bizarre properties of the quantum world can be made concrete in a system big enough to be held in the hand. Their superconducting electrical system could tunnel from one state to another, as if it were passing straight through a wall. They also showed that the system absorbed and emitted energy in doses of specific sizes, just as predicted by quantum mechanics.