Cars, buildings, computer chips, you and me, and the air we breathe—everything is made of atoms. We learn this in elementary school, because, well, it’s an elementary fact. But for most of our history, we humans have been pretty much clueless as to what’s going on at the scale of individual atoms.

Despite our ignorance of this microscopic world, we’ve made some miraculous innovations just by studying the behavior of materials at the macroscopic scale. After all, we didn’t need to know anything about atoms to build pyramids or railroads or suspension bridges or skyscrapers or light bulbs. We didn’t even need to know anything about atoms in order to create entirely new materials like steel and plastic and fiberglass. We’ve proven to be pretty great at engineering even though the fundamental atomic composition beneath our designs has been shrouded in mystery.

But here’s the thing: With an understanding of that fundamental atomic composition, we can do even better.

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