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Nobel Prize In Physics For Bose-Einstein Condensate

Posted by timothy on from the get-to-meet-the-king dept.

LMCBoy writes "The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics today. The award went to scientists who managed to construct a Bose-Einstein condensate from Rubidium and Sodium atoms. The process involves cooling the atoms to about 20 nanoKelvin. From the press release: 'A laser beam differs from the light from an ordinary light bulb in several ways. In the laser the light particles all have the same energy and oscillate together. To cause matter also to behave in this controlled way has long been a challenge for researchers. This year's Nobel Laureates have succeeded - they have caused atoms to "sing in unison" - thus discovering a new state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate.'" This is the same reasearch that Hemos recently posted about.

5 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. I'm confused... by Quasar1999 · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hun? Someone want to explain to me how this is worthy of a nobel prize? I understand that it is neat... but how does it better our society? A cure for AIDS would be much more worthy, even if it isn't as technically challenging IMHO... Wasn't the prize supposed to be about the best scientific discovery that helps society???

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    1. Re:I'm confused... by k98sven · · Score: -1, Troll

      Ok, as everyone else is pointing out, the medicine prize would be much more appropriate.

      But how can you say that it isn't as technically challenging?
      Curing AIDS is incredibly challenging; billions of
      dollars are being spent, and thousands of people are doing research in the field. Yet no cure as of yet.

      By comparison, there are only about 10-20 research groups in the
      world working on BECs. I'd say AIDS is the tougher problem.

      And no, it doesn't have to benifit society,
      in fact, the prize in physics rarely goes to more
      'applied' science. On the other hand, it also rarely goes to entirely theoretical science.

      So, this is a relatively typical prize: an experimental verification of an important theory,
      (as the name implies, the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates goes all the way back to Uncle Albert)

  2. Now that's cool by Winged+Cat · · Score: 1, Troll

    And I don't just mean what you can do with it. ;)

  3. Clone Einstein by Aurelfell · · Score: 1, Troll

    We should make a clone of Einstein. All most every physicist in the last 50 years has used his work as a basis. If we made a few dozen more of him, think of the technology we could have in another fifty years.

  4. shut up nigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

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