Scientists Using Lasers To Cool Molecules

An anonymous reader writes "Ever since audiences heard Goldfinger utter the famous line, 'No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to die,' as a laser beam inched its way toward James Bond and threatened to cut him in half, lasers have been thought of as white-hot beams of intensely focused energy capable of burning through anything in their path. Now a team of Yale physicists has used lasers for a completely different purpose, employing them to cool molecules down to temperatures near absolute zero, about -460 degrees Fahrenheit. Their new method for laser cooling, described in the online edition of the journal Nature, is a significant step toward the ultimate goal of using individual molecules as information bits in quantum computing."

Comments

Lasers that "Cool"

[jkiller]

Now if only the scientists would use lasers to cool all the /. readers. Goddamn bunch o' nerds if you ask me.

Re:Energy, not heat.

[rainmouse]

A good laser has an infrared filter on it, but the cheap laser pointers have either inadequate filtering or none at all, which is what makes them dangerous.

Re:Laser cooling?

[insufflate10mg]

Suckass.