A team of researchers at the University of Maryland has found a new way to route photons at the micrometer scale without scattering by building a topological quantum optics interface. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their topological photonic structure, how it works, and the ways they tested it. Alberto Amo with Université de Lill in Spain offers a short history of recent attempts to route photons at such a tiny scale and also outlines the work done by the team at UM.