[rpz]

Here is an example of the effect straight from the article:

> The ion trap was then regularly "measured" by applying a sequence of ultraviolet pulses during the RF pulse. As expected, the ultraviolet pulses suppressed the evolution of the system into the excited state.

Not sure why this parent comment is bothering others so much.

If applying pulses of UV light is considered as an example of taking a measurement then I don’t see how I could be surprised when someone wonders whether or not the measurement itself is more than just an observation.

Atoms are sensitive to changes in electric and magnetic fields. Wine glasses are sensitive to being struck with a hammer. I can detect whether I just smashed glass with a hammer by listening for the sound the glass made when it was smashed to a billion pieces.

[sumy23]

All measurement, but especially so at the quantum scale, involves interacting with the observed subject. One of the observations made by quantum mechanics is that you can't observe a system without interacting / altering it in some way.

To give you a macroscopic example, the way you detect the color of an object is to apply electromagnetic radiation in the visible light spectrum to the object and see which wavelengths are absorbed and reflected. The process of absorption and reflection is a physical interaction with the object you're looking at.