scientificpokedex:

Duskull, like many spooky ghosts, has the ability to pass through walls. Pure energy like radio waves or x-rays pass through objects, but what’s particularly peculiar about these pokémon is that they still have mass, reported by the pokédex. In Duskull’s case, 15 kg of matter floats through a wall as if it wasn’t even there.

The strangest part is—this actually happens in our world. It’s known as quantum tunneling, when a particle passes through a barrier that classical physics should not allow it to. For example, think of a roller coaster: If the car are not moving fast enough after the first drop, it won’t have enough energy to make it up the second hill. But, in an electron’s case, there’s a chance that instead of climbing over the hill, it will pass right through it and out the other side.

Like most things in quantum mechanics, quantum tunneling is only possible due to the wave-like nature of particles. Most people know of the famous dual nature of light, where photons sometimes act like particles, and sometimes act like waves. However, quantum mechanics tells us that this is true for all particles. Electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, and much more can all act like a wave, or a particle. 

Rather than existing at one time in one place with one mass, velocity, etc., quantum mechanics tell us that particles are really nothing but probabilities. We can know the likelihood of whether a particle will tunnel, or the likelihood that it will behave classically, but we’ll never know if it actually will until it’s already done. These probabilities of existence form a “wave distribution”, which is responsible for the wave nature of particles.

Us, as humans, are made of about 10^25 atoms. Each one of those atoms individually has a probability that it will tunnel through a wall when we run into it, but collectively, for all 10^25 to tunnel at once is impossible.

So how does Duskull do it? Duskull is a rather large collection of particles, so for it to tunnel through a wall as an entity requires control (and understanding) of quantum physics that we just don’t have yet. Duskull can either manipulate probabilities, or manipulate the outcome; either way, causing the atoms that make up its body to pass through a wall unobstructed.

Duskull uses quantum mechanics to cause all of the atoms in its body to quantum tunnel through walls, allowing it to pass through unobstructed.