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Science 14 June 1996:
Vol. 272. no. 5268, pp. 1587 - 1588
DOI: 10.1126/science.272.5268.1587
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Research News

Gary Taubes

A year ago this month, physicists first created a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which a cloud of trapped atoms is cooled so close to absolute zero that their quantum-mechanical waves merge. But with barely 1000 atoms in a condensate that lasted just a few seconds, the researchers could do no more than say they'd done it. Now the field is being transformed by a new atom trap that can create condensates of 5 million sodium atoms that survive for half a minute and a new technique for imaging condensates without destroying them. Several research groups are now probing the size, growth rate, optical properties, and even the viscosity of this new form of matter.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Bose-Einstein condensation.
J. Doyle (1997)
PNAS 94, 2774-2775
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