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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."

10 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. OMG Sharks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    .. with friggin' freeze rays on their heads .... *groan*

  2. Fahrenheit? Really? by dcmoebius · · Score: 2, Funny

    Come on. Just say 0 K.

    Acknowledging the appropriate SI units only stings for a little while.

    1. Re:Fahrenheit? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Zero thousand? What the hell is that?

    2. Re:Fahrenheit? Really? by mandark1967 · · Score: 3, Funny

      OK.

      --
      Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
  3. Re:So basically this means by zero_out · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shooting things with laser until they stop moving cools them? I guess its for more than cooking now.

    When I shot the neighbor's cat, with my CO2 laser, until it stopped moving, it cooled down. It dropped from 101.5 degrees F, to about 63 degrees F (ambient temperature at the coolest part of that night) . It took several hours, but it cooled down.

    [disclaimer] The above statement was purely jest. I have never shot anything with a laser, and have never intentionally harmed an animal. Any agency that is sniffing my packets will not find the stench of wrongdoing here. Just the stench of a bad joke.

  4. Do you expect me to talk? by roman_mir · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to yell like a little girl while I am freezing your balls!

  5. Re:"...lasers have been thought of as white-hot... by Jahava · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wrong? It's not true that the general Bond-watching audience thinks of lasers as being white hot?

    It's pretty obvious: The atoms are stirred, not shaken.

  6. News from 2010 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What%27s+the+difference+between+an+atom+and+a+molecule

  7. Re:This is nothing new. by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, you hold your breath until that happens.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. With this laser... by manwargi · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and five missiles, we can finally kill a Metroid.