If aliens were to examine a human, they would think we were just slavish organisms designed to feed microbes and carry them around. Our bodies contain ten times more bacteria than cells , and there are an estimated 3.

Detecting a single photon may seem overkill for most purposes. However, looking at such tiny amounts of light is essential for researchers working  with quantum computers as well as for  chip manufacturers, just to mention two examples.

The story began a few years ago, when two scientists from the University of Delft (see related story) developed a way to double the efficiency of currently available single photons detectors.