First 'Atomic Air Force' Observed

SeaDour writes "From the National Institute of Standards and Technology (the people who brought you the atomic clock) and the Unviersity of Colorado at Boulder (location of the world's first Bose-Einstein Condensate and Fermionic Condensate) comes the world's first observation of atoms "flying in formation". Atoms are normally expected to fly around through empty space quite haphazardly, constantly colliding with one another. But thanks to precision laser pulses and extremely cold temperatures, Jun Ye's team was able to correograph strontium atoms into the shape of a cube as they travelled across a vacuum chamber. "This 'really bizarre' behavior is believed to occur with all atoms under similar conditions.""

Comments

Science is Fun

[Please_Chose_Another]

I know some will sat this is worthless but it is this kind of playing around that leads to huge advances in technology

Probably...

[BigZaphod]

..this air force will all be swallowed by a small dog.

Of course this sort of thing is going on all the time and we are powerless to stop it.

Re:Probably...

[wikdwarlock]

Only if that small dog doesn't mind getting pulsed with high energy lasers, focused magnetic fields, and liquid helium/hydrogen temperatures. Actually, sound like a plot for the next blockbuster.

Sparky, an ordinary pet beagle, sat watching the experiment from a nearby lab stool. His owner, Fred, was on the verge of something, something great, something that would free humanity from death, disease, and poverty. As the equipment came to life, Sparky the inquisitve beagle sniffed in the direction of the minutely controlled atoms, and, sniffing a bit too close, was caught up in the experiment. *flash of light* As the smoke cleared, Sparky was no longer a normal dog. Instead, he had been given new powers, new abilities, and a new mission in life: to fight crime! Coming this summer, Nano Dog! The tiniest hero the world has ever seen.

Honey, I shrunk the kids?

[rickbrodie]

If the normal behaviour of atoms is to whizz about individually, what does this new observation imply for the density of the material? If all the atoms are stacked up in some sort of lattice type structure (though they're not actually connected), then they'd be super-dense, not to mention super-strong right?