The image shows a laser (purple arrow) illuminating the electrodeposited thorium (orange) and the electrons (yellow arrows) hitting a detector (the detector front face is made to look like a clock as an artistic liberty). Credit: Richard Elwell and Christian Schneider Last year, researchers led by UCLA achieved a milestone that physicists had pursued for half a century. They succeeded in making radioactive thorium nuclei absorb and release photons in a controlled way, similar to how electrons