What So Interesting About Single Quantum Systems ? Physics Nobel 2012

In which we do a little imaginary Q&A to explain the significance of Tuesday's Nobel Prize to Dave Wineland and Serge Haroche. I did a quick post Tuesday morning noting that the latest Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to two big names from my corner of the field. This would've been a great time to drop a long explainer post about what they did and why it's cool, but alas, I have a day job, and the Nobel committee stubbornly refuses to tell me who they're giving the prizes to in advance. Oh, well. Still, I'm just vain enough to think I can add something a little different than the many other posts that have already been written about this, so I'll have a go at it in the traditional fake Q&A format. OK, what's this Nobel Prize stuff about? The citation says it's about "measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems," but why is that interesting? Well, in one way of looking at the world, the big difference between the everyday world that we're used to, and the world of quantum mechanics is that the everyday world contains too much stuff. Everything in the universe is fundamentally quantum-mechanical,…