Our group is interested in investigating experimentally the role of information in quantum mechanics, and the transition between quantum and classical dynamics. The two are closely related - when a quantum system interacts with its environment, the loss of coherence in the system is due to sharing of information with the environment. We would like to investigate this in a controlled manner, by precision control of the system, environment, and the coupling between the two. We are simultaneously developing new methods for quantum state generation and quantum information processing with trapped atomic ions.