In a major milestone for quantum physics, thousands of molecules have been induced to share the same quantum state, dancing together in unison like one huge super molecule.

This is a goal long-sought by physicists, who hope to harness complex quantum systems for technological applications — but getting a bunch of unruly molecules to work together is on a difficulty par with herding cats.

“People have been trying to do this for decades, so we’re very excited,” said physicist Cheng Chin from the University of Chicago.