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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."
Laser cooling has been used for quite some time. What's the story here? The temperature?
The difference here is that they have used it to cool molecules. Up to now, only atoms have been cooled using this method.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Who the hell uses Fahrenheit for anything remotely connected to science? I can understand translating 0K to -273.15C, then 1K is -272.15C -- but how meaningful to anyone is -459.67F?
Ian Ameline
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.