RYDBERG SCULPTING is a new technique for placing an atom (a highly excited, or "Rydberg," atom) in many energy states simultaneously. Applications could include improved designs for quantum computers, which presently call for collections of rudimentary 2-level quantum systems, similar to the 2-state (0 and 1) classical binary computers used today. But how would an atom be in, say, 10 energy states at one time? By being struck by laser pulses of very short duration. Such a pulse is itself really a superposition of coherent light waves at many different energies. This multi-personality existence is transferred to the atom when it absorbs the laser pulse. In Philip Bucksbaum's lab at the University of Michigan (734-764-4348), actively shaped ultrashort light pulses hit atoms in a beam. This creates within the atom what Bucksbaum calls "wave packet sculpting," a bundle of electron waves dancing in a complex pattern as they go around the nucleus, at times interfering with each other. This interference can already be controlled so carefully that it can be used to store several bits of information. More complex versions will allow the type of factoring or searching exercises (e.g., hunting for a pea hidden under one of several cups) used in quantum computations. Bucksbaum estimates that a number as large as 2¹⁰ could be factored by setting a single atom to work. Factoring larger numbers would require additional atoms. (Paper QTHA1, May 27, at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) meeting in Baltimore. View movie at Physics News Graphics; also see Physical Review Focus, 22 June 1998.)