A single atom sounds like a D-note — D28, to be precise, “about 20 octaves above the highest note on a grand piano.”

That’s the conclusion from a team of researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, which set out to capture the sound of an atom.

“We have opened a new door into the quantum world by talking and listening to atoms,” study co-author Per Delsing said in a press release. “Our long term goal is to harness quantum physics so that we can benefit from its laws, for example in extremely fast computers. We do this by making electrical circuits which obey quantum laws, that we can control and study.”

The research was published in the journal Science.

DNews explains how the research was conducted:

“The team started by first making an artificial atom. Next, they charged it with energy. Normally, atoms release energy in the form of light, called a photon. However, in this experiment, the atom was designed to both emit and absorb energy in the form of sound, called a phonon.”

One of the greatest historical discoveries involving atoms was the finding that atoms combine in a certain way: