Quantum collapse as obeserved

In the quantum world, there are two types of evolution of an isolated system. One is unitary and continuous in time, while the other is discontinuous and abrupt. Not only that, the latter can not even be predicted. This is sometimes called the random "quantum collapse". Although postulated as a fundamental principle of quantum physics, the direct observation of such discrete jumps has been a fascinating subject since the early times. The observation is very difficult, because it is not easy to maintain a long enough coherence of a system in environemental noise. In a latest work [NATURE|Vol 467|16 September 2010], such observation is rendered in a solid state qubit.