“We thought it would be nice to have atoms interact in such a gentle way with the photons that they would just take an imprint of the photons, so that many atoms could 'see' the same photon and it would give rise to a lot of interesting effects. Myself and my colleagues had this project for a very lo”

“A question I get asked a lot is 'What is it like to play the straight guy all the time?' And I'm totally okay with it.”