Max-Planck-Institut fur Quantenoptik researchers have proposed an experiment to create a quantum superposition of a virus to “address fundamental questions, such as the role of life in quantum mechanics,and differences between many-world and Copenhagen interpretations.”

The experiment will first involve storing a virus in a vacuum and then cooling it to its quantum mechanical ground state in a microcavity. Zapping the virus with a laser then leaves it in a superposition of the ground state and an excited one.