7-14-95. NYPaper Page Oner: "2 Groups of Physicists Produce Matter That Einstein Postulated." By chilling a cloud of atoms to a temperature barely above absolute zero, scientists at a Colorado laboratory have at last created a bizarre type of matter that had eluded experimenters ever since its potential existence was postulated by Albert Einstein 70 years ago. The creation of this Bose-Einstein condensate -- named for Einstein, and the Indian theorist Satyendra Nath Bose -- was hailed yesterday as the basis of a new field of research expected to explain some fundamental mysteries of atomic physics. A Texas group later produced similar results. The achievement should allow physicists to peer directly into the realm of the ultrasmall. MYS_fit [This was also reported in The Economist of July 1.]
O.K., this is totally off any reasonable topic, but allow me the indulgence:
"2 Groups of Physicists Produce Matter That Einstein Postulated."
I've been hanging around Carl Weiman's lab for a couple of years (a friend of mine works on one of the projects), and this is one hell of an achievement. The apparatus they use sits on a tabletop, and you can watch the gas through infared T.V. cameras in real time. The trap is just a little vacuum chamber with windows in the side. They use the same diode lasers that come in your C.D. player, an ingeniously inexpensive setup. Yow! -- Will
participants (2)
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John Young -
W. Kinney