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Exploring Superstrings in the Lab

Posted by Zonk on from the knitting-a-scarf dept.

ultracool writes "Physicists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands have come up with a way of observing a superstring by utilizing Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). A one-dimensional BEC in an optical lattice is rapidly rotated, causing a quantized vortex to form. The bosonic part of the superstring consists of this vortex line. Inside the vortex, they would trap an ultracold cloud of fermionic atoms. Hopefully this will allow observation of the supersymmetry between bosons and fermions, thus providing the first experimental evidence to support superstring theory."

10 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Woah.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I almost understood a word of that.. Almost.

    1. Re:Woah.. by STrinity · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's really simple. By reversing the fermionic tachyon waves of the Bose-Einstein condensation, they'll create bosonic quarks which will reveal, through quantum entanglement of anti-protons, the supersymetry of n-dimensional strings! Gah, it's so simple a pre-schooler could understand it.

      --
      Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
    2. Re:Woah.. by Aeiri · · Score: 4, Funny

      Let's hope and pray the Marketing Dept. doesn't turn all that into a buzzword.

      "Pro-actively enabling the supersymmetry between bosons and fermions..."

      They'd change the words "bosons" to "bosoms", "fermions" to "females", and "superstrings" to "g-strings", then have a bunch of naked chicks dance around the screen with g-strings for the rest of the 30 seconds.

    3. Re:Woah.. by nanojath · · Score: 3, Funny

      yeah, it read to me like this: Physicists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands have come up with a way of observing a superstring by utilizing blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Hopefully this will allow observation of the blah blah blah blah blah, thus providing the first experimental evidence to support superstring theory."

      Of course it would.

      --

      It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries

    4. Re:Woah.. by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 3, Funny

      It all made perfect sense to me. But I still can't understand women.

  2. I use super-strings all the time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/ StringBuilder.html .
    They're great. You can modify them and they aren't synchronized so they're fast, too. If these scientists are only just now discovering them they should try reading some newsgroups.

  3. No Way! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Supersymmetry between bosons and fermions is not possible in your universe. We have seen to that.

  4. I saw that episode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's the one in which Q inverts a universal constant, right?

  5. Think of the applications! by dj245 · · Score: 4, Funny
    The bosonic part of the superstring consists of this vortex line. Inside the vortex, they would trap an ultracold cloud of fermionic atoms.

    This has direct implications for the food industry. No longer will superstring cheese have to be refrigerated, the fermionic atoms will maintain an ultracold cloud around the superstring cheese, keeping it tasty and fresh. Yum.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  6. Re:I want a room temp condensate by BillX · · Score: 3, Funny

    A liquid or solid condensate at room temp exhibiting BEC properties will be nice. I wonder if liquid helium can be made that way.

    If you can flow liquid helium up your arm at room temperature, it's time to talk to your landlord ASAP.

    --
    Caveat Emptor is not a business model.