Until now, atoms have never been imaged interacting freely in space, but a new technique known as non-resolved microscopy has changed that. MIT physicists were able to successfully capture images of interacting bosons and fermions that were frozen in place and then illuminated. Enigmatic because of their quantum nature—meaning that they behave as both particles and waves—atoms had never been visualized freely interacting with each other. As a result, this is the first time Zwierlein managed to freeze the motion of strongly interacting atoms in situ, and he was able to capture images of both bosons and fermions. The image of bosons shows atoms bunching together with wavelike trails of light behind them, indicating that they are moving in waves.