A proposed experiment may deliver evidence for the emission or absorption of gravitons—an advance that might one day enable gravity to be controlled much like electromagnetism is today.

A major milestone in human development was the transition from passively observing electromagnetic phenomena, such as electric discharges and magnetism, to actively manipulating them. This shift led to a plethora of applications—from power plants to modern electronics. The exquisite control of electromagnetic fields and of their interaction with matter has also yielded deep insights into the fundamental laws of nature, allowing us to test modern theories with remarkable precision. Now Ralf Schützhold of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf in Germany argues that a similar turning point may be reached for gravity [1]. His approach for manipulating gravity relies on experiments that can control the emission or absorption of gravitons, the hypothetical elementary particles mediating the gravitational interaction in a quantized theory of gravity.