Crucial to the properties of matter, atoms are widely known as the building blocks of the universe. Harking back to your grade school science classes, you might remember atoms are made up of positively charged protons, neutral neutrons, and negative electrons. But relatively speaking, there's a whole lot of empty space between those subatomic particles.

Electrons generally orbit far from their atomic nucleus center. If these building blocks can be filled with so much empty space, a team of scientists at the Vienna University of Technology and Harvard University wanted to see if it was possible to fill that void with something else, like other atoms. (Related: "How a Student Took a Photo of a Single Atom")

In quantum