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Bose-Einstein Condensate

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This year the Nobel Prize in Physics went to two scientists, Eric Cornell of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Carl Wieman at Colorado University, who were the first to achieve a Bose-Einstein (BEC) condensate in neutral atoms (The 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics and BECs win prizes).

I am definitely not a physics person (hated it in school) and Bose-Einstein condensate sounds like something I will never understand. But, believe it or not, there are some very readable sites on the Internet on this topic.

Click over to the University of Colorado's BCE Homepage. First off, we learn that the Bose-Einstein condensate is a new state of matter (a fifth state, the other four being gas, liquid, solid and plasma). It was predicted in 1924 by A. Einstein and S. Bose but not created until 1995. The condensate requires ultra-cold temperatures to form. Wieman and Cornell first formed the condensate at 200-billionths of a degree Celsius above absolute zero.

Interestingly, this page states that the coldest place in nature is the depth of outer space, which has a temperature of three degrees above absolute zero. That is why it is believed that the BEC doesn't occur naturally, since colder temperatures are needed for their formation. The University of Colorado site then goes on to explain what exactly a BEC is. Surprisingly, it is a very readable account. You don't have to take your degree in physics along with you.

It then goes on to relate how the BEC was made. This is done in the form of a conversation between a student and a professor, with her asking questions and him answering them. Included with the discussion are animations to help with the understanding of the concept being considered. They certainly help get the idea across, plus they are fun.

If you would like to read Eric A. Cornell's and Carl E. Wieman's story of how they went about forming the condensate, then take a look at The Bose-Einstein Condensate, originally published in Scientific American in 1998.

What uses might the condensate be put to, you ask? So far, it is to early to tell but it was a while before the full potential of the laser was realized. The site Bose-Einstein Condensate states that even if it turns out that the condensates have no important practical applications "...they have an important place in science for its own sake. They offer a clearer window than we have ever had before onto the weird world of quantum statistical mechanics. And quantum statistical mechanics is the deepest theory that present human science possesses: it underlies everything...."

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