Physicists were able to make “electron-like” atoms sit still for a photo. Images of single atoms cooled and trapped by lasers had been taken before, but only using bosons. Fermionic atoms, which have the same spin as electrons and other fundamental particles, have proved harder to cool and assemble into optical traps. Three independent teams, one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one at Harvard University, and one at the University of Strathclyde in the UK, got fermionic atoms to “say cheese” (see Synopsis: Quantum Microscope Images Fermionic Atoms). The basic idea is to use lasers that both cool and image at the same time. Having this imaging capability is important for quantum simulations, in which the interactions between the fermionic atoms can be tuned to simulate, for instance, strongly correlated electrons in superconductors and colossal magnetoresistance materials.