How ‘leet’ must it feel to be one of the MIT physicists who created a new form of matter. Before I read about this quantum miracle, I found it difficult to even conceive of matter different from my solid, liquid, and gas friends..
I’m so primitive.
But they could see it: a gas of atoms that exhibit high temperature superfluidity!
And yet, not a gas. More like a matter-wave, bridging the gap between particle and wave, pushing the quantum envelope, kicking Schrodinger’s ass.
I mean - DUH!
What is superfluidity you ask?
Oh - it’s just that phase of matter where there’s no viscocity.
Viscosity - you know - that, uh, measure of, uh, liquid ‘thickitude’.
Somebody pass me a grumblecake!
Actually it’s really cool - to be without viscocity is to be without friction! And this means all kinds of good stuff for smart people who study superconductors and stuff.
Here’s a picture of the supergas. Those swiss cheese holes are actually little vortices - like tiny tornados ready to pick you and take you back to Kansas (don’t worry, there’s no friction so it shouldn’t hurt much).
How’d they do it? With LASERS of course!
What are they calling the new matter? Bose-Einstein Condensates.
HOT.
Here’s an article that might make more sense than this grumbled mess.
Related posts:
0 Responses to “New form of matter… CHECK”