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New Zealand Scientists Make Atom-Trapping Breakthrough
Mogster writes with this news from New Zealand: "'University of Otago scientists have made a 'major physics breakthrough' with the development of a technique to consistently isolate and capture a fast-moving single atom. A team of four researchers from the university's physics department are believed to be the first to isolate and photograph the Rubidium 85 atom.' Good to see Kiwis following in Rutherford's footsteps."
Would try to trap the very atoms of existence!
Can never be too sure about them Aussies, can we?
I'll believe it when I can see it (or determine its velocity).
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Because I couldn't see it..
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Soon they'll be trying to split the beer atom...
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Isolating and capturing an atom is easy - like herding sheep.
When they can pluck one out of mid air with a pair of chop sticks, i'll be impressed.
On an actually related note, was I the only one who eagerly viewed the story with the supposed photograph [of] the Rubidium 85 atom and felt very cheated that the article didn't contain the photograph of the atom?
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
These quantum computing fanatics don't seem to realize they are going to destroy the whole world when all existing encryption systems can be broken.
What is important about this experiment is how often they can trap a single atom. Previous experiments have shown that creating a small trap volume and using atomic collisions allows for a 50% probability. (This is the regime our experiment is currently trying to work in) Their work showed that it is possible to exceed this using fairly simple techniques. There are also more complicated theoretical methods which various groups are trying to demonstrate as well. I believe they have reported >80% probability of loading a single atom into their trap. This increased probability is not completely necessary for scaling atomic quantum computers but will help. If they can achieve a probability close to 1 then this would help greatly. For instance with the old well established techniques I would make an array of 100 trapping sites but only expect to have 50 usable qubits loaded during any one experiment. This would now give us the ability to say we have more than 80 usable qubits for every experiment, which just helps scaling the quantum computer to useful sizes easier.
I would be quite surprised if this was the first time that single Rb 85 atoms had been trapped and imaged. We have been using single Rb 87 atoms in our experiments since about 2005 and other groups had been doing it before us. Switching to Rb 85 would take us about 15 minutes as the only required change is a frequency change of ~2 GHz for our two cooling lasers.
This seemed to be geared toward quantum computing, but I was wondering if the same technique could isolate a significant mass of highly energetic matter, e.g. newly created antimatter? We've only been able to capture an almost negligible fraction of that so far.
Not the only one at all. I wanted to see a photograph of an atom.
The good news is I went and found it, the bad news is it's probably not as cool as I'd hoped: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1009/S00122/university-of-otago-atom-breakthrough-represents.htm
You'd also try if it peed on your rug...
What does the proton say to the neutron?
It's a trap!
Up and at them!
Pictures or it didn't happen.
Nope!
Nate
You can just lure the atoms into a t rap with a trail of candy.
Monstar L
You'd also try if it peed on your rug...
Is that the penis of the fucking chinaman who peed on my rug?
Are the "University of Otago scientists'" real names Agent K and J, perchance?
Do it with a Photon and I'll be impressed.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
On the other hand, that same news outlet apparently brought back Sam Kinnison from the dead to do their wine reviews, which sort of makes up for it.
“I learnt at elementary school that it is impossible to see a single atom through a microscope. Well, my elementary school teacher was wrong,” he says.
Actually, unless he also invented a time machine, his elementary school teacher was absolutely correct...
Photographs of trapped single atoms abound; they're just not that interesting. The atom will scatter light from the trapping beams and the scattered light can be easily imaged onto a camera. In fact, imaging is often used to characterize the trap. The atom just shows up as a blurry dot with the size of the blur being determined by the diffraction limit of the light or perhaps the tightness of the confinement. There's certainly no internal structure that would be resolvable.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
The last one that I saw which was pretty cool was this one which was a photo of a carbon atom taken by Ukranian researchers. It at least shows two pictures showing different electron clouds.
I couldn't find an article to the original article, but this article has the picture that I was searching for anyhow, which shows a "net" of Germanium atoms on an ink blot.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Que? Was expecting copy along the lines of "The nose had a musty apertif of hazelnuts, OH, OH, OH, YEAH GODDAMNIT!" That was no more Kinison-esque as Michael Jackson's reviews of beer and wine dealt with pedophilia, glove on one hand, etc.
In a major physics breakthrough with international significance.......
And thought it was strange that they were excited about doing something with 'international significance.' Whereas here in the states, I'm wishing fewer things happened with 'international significance.'
Qxe4
As another Otago researcher I attended a presentation by the lead researcher a couple of weeks ago. Although the science was cool his presentation style really sold the show and it’s a shame you can’t see him in action. What made me laugh was that he seemed most proud that he had proved his elementary school teacher was wrong. A fact that is also repeated in the article linked above.
Even better, with the megapixel races going on, every P&S made will soon be able to resolve down to the atomic level!
- - - if only lenses ever catch up to advances in sensors.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Reminds me of an RL version of JezzBall - my, the Windows Entertainment Pack games were/are addictive little buggers. :)
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Kiwi-scientists-make-atomic-breakthrough/tabid/1160/articleID/178407/Default.aspx
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
The Rubidium 85 are being illegally restrained against their will, and the laws of nature!!! We must rise up and free our atomic comrades!!! Atom traps are cruel and unusual punishment!!!
Why is Snark Required?
All that experience isolating and capturing a single fast-moving sheep gotta pay up...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Similar work has been done in the groups of Dieter Meschede in Bonn and the group of Phillipe Grangier in Paris,
almost ten years ago. I'm not saying this isn't hard to do, but it's not science news.
If only his teacher had said "it's impossible to create jetpacks with real longevity", we would all have no need for stairs
"It's a trap!"
- Admiral Ackbar
Most New Zealanders believe that their fellow Kiwi Ernest Rutherford was the first person to "split the atom". This falsehood is repeated everywhere in NZ, including within many locally-produced school science text books. Almost nobody in NZ is aware of Rutherford's actual and very very cool discoveries...all they will repeat is that he was "the first person to split the atom!"... and proceed to burn you at the stake for suggesting otherwise.
Local scientist and musician Yahoo Serious hopes to soon split the beer atom.
> New Zealand Scientists Make Atom-Trapping Breakthrough
As a proud loud Australian I claim Mikkel Andersen as Australia's favourite son! Come on over matey. I also claim "Lord of the Rings" as one of Australia's greatest movies and "Crowded House" as our greatest band (hey... nothing since the 80's sounds right anyway). And that Kiwi who discovered the relationship between steroids and lung activation that must have saved a million premature babies... we own him too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/06/sir-graham-mont-liggins-obituary
That is pretty damn cool, actually!
Good to see Kiwis following in Rutherford's footsteps."
Hmm ...
Lead researcher Mikkel Andersen said ...
Yes ... "Kiwis" ...
FTFA: "Atoms usually move at the speed of sound, making them difficult to manipulate."
It's not quite as simple as that.
Sound moves at the speed of sound, not atoms. Sound is a perturbation in the medium and is not always directly related with the speed of the particles. A simple experiment: bang a railroad rail with a hammer. The sound will travel at 6000 meters per second along the rail. Observe the rail: is it moving at 6000 m/s? I don't think so.
In a gas, the statement about the typical speed of an atom being on the same order of magnitude as the speed of sound is correct, but the statement as written in the article is misleading.
So am I right in thinking the principle underlying this is to do things that reduce the probability the atom will be "kicked" someplace else? What confuses me here is if you're constraints are that strong in terms of uncertainty, surely you also have the same constraints (i.e. the system is almost "classical" if you're approaching a certainty of 1) in your qbits with respect to the usefulness of the quantum calculation you can perform? Did I miss something important here? (It wouldn't be the first time).
two wars and collapsing the world economy isn't significant on an international scale?
Ok, that was a cheap shot, to be fair, Fermilab seems to be making more news than the LHC.
This ought to help advance their crash program to create bubbles in beer.
Now where's that chisel?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It’s pretty much like the calf-tying event.
Dammit, now I wanna see this... is there a video? The geek in me would have been satisfied with a picture, but the Midwesterner wants to watch everything go down. Including the rodeo clowns...
I have it on good authority that the photograph in question is not the wily Rubidium atom, but the lazy and commonplace Strontium atom. You can tell by the interference pattern.
['tis a joke, for the humor-impaired]
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
I wanted to see a photograph of an atom.
The good news is I went and found it, the bad news is it's probably not as cool as I'd hoped...
Well, what did you expect a photograph of an atom to look like?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
I'll admit, I kind of wanted to see a picture of a little mini galaxy type thing and have all my high-school textbook images of an (over-simplified) atom come to life.
I know, unrealistic, but that's what I was hoping for in my mind's eye.
No worries, the atom will post its photo on its Facebook profile soon.
The good news is I went and found it, the bad news is it's probably not as cool as I'd hoped
Very convenient, they took the photo of a galaxy and called it an atom.