Beating the uncertainty principle

Recent work by quantum physicists has suggested a way around Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, whereby position and momentum of a particle cannot both be known exactly, which limits what can be measured simultaneous. It is now thought that complementarity (or the wave-particle duality of matter) is a more fundamental principle than uncertainty. This is shown to be consistent with quantum theory. New developments in quantum optics and one-atom masers are allowing experiments using rubidium atoms to be carried out in order to test these ideas and establish whether or not matter can exhibit wave and particle behaviour simultaneously. (UK)