Physicists recently mapped the hidden shape that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a new method that’s expected to become ubiquitous.

Famously, at the quantum scale, particles can be in multiple possible locations at once. A particle’s state spreads out like a wave, peaking where the particle is likely to be found. When you measure its position, this spread-out state, known as a wave function, transforms into a single definite location.

The full shape of the wave function long evaded detection, since trying to measure it will destroy it. But in the 1980s, physicists began developing methods to measure and control the wave functions of simple systems — advances that have since formed the foundation of quantum computing. And in the last few years, a new approach is enabling physicists to go further and learn about the wave functions of entire materials.

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