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Researchers Create New Form of Matter (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: MIT physicists have created a new form of matter, a supersolid, which combines the properties of solids with those of superfluids. By using lasers to manipulate a superfluid gas known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, the team was able to coax the condensate into a quantum phase of matter that has a rigid structure -- like a solid -- and can flow without viscosity -- a key characteristic of a superfluid. Studies into this apparently contradictory phase of matter could yield deeper insights into superfluids and superconductors, which are important for improvements in technologies such as superconducting magnets and sensors, as well as efficient energy transport. The researchers report their results this week in the journal Nature. The team used a combination of laser cooling and evaporative cooling methods, originally co-developed by Ketterle, to cool atoms of sodium to nanokelvin temperatures. Atoms of sodium are known as bosons, for their even number of nucleons and electrons. When cooled to near absolute zero, bosons form a superfluid state of dilute gas, called a Bose-Einstein condensate, or BEC. To create the supersolid state, the team manipulated the motion of the atoms of the BEC using laser beams, introducing "spin-orbit coupling." In their ultrahigh-vacuum chamber, the team used an initial set of lasers to convert half of the condensate's atoms to a different quantum state, or spin, essentially creating a mixture of two Bose-Einstein condensates. Additional laser beams then transferred atoms between the two condensates, called a "spin flip."
Bose-Einstein condensates
Just remember that if ghost-like warriors are created with this technology, they can be beat with iron.
lucm, indeed.
For those who facepalmed when they saw that Sodium is a boson in TFS ... technically, its most common isotope (Na23) is in fact a composite boson, because the total number of fermion particles is even: 11 protons + 12 neutrons + 11 electrons = 34 fermions, each with spin 1/2. So, the composite Na23 atom is net integer spin, and thus a boson.
http://theworldofsmall.blogspo...
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
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Here's an example of Trump spending money on a couple of elitist eggheads' meaningless mind masturbation. At the same time he's going to take the Obamaphones away from the brothas! This is one nigga that damn sure wants his Obamaphone. I don't give a damn fuck what some lily white MIT cracker wants. The white boys be taking my Obamaphone.
If people in authority (cough, cough) listened to the likes of you, humanity would never have invented the wheel, the lever, the steam engine, the electric motor, the vacuum tube, the transistor, the laser, the internet ...
Next time, post with both hands. That is all.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Well, as near as I can make out, they are describing a phenomenon that is analogous to a standing wave in a river.
Watch water in a swift river cascade over a ledge. It will form a standing wave behind the ledge which does not move, even though all the matter in it is moving downstream. This is the opposite of a traveling wave in the ocean where the mater doesn't move but the structure does.
Now so much for analogies. Again as far as I can make out, they coaxed super-cooled sodium atoms into a crystal-like structure which is stable, but allows the constituent atoms move freely within the structure. Again, I suspect this is an analogy too, but I'm at the limit of my understanding of modern physics.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
You mean this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
A note to researchers: You know why the Bohr Model of the atom persists in education even though it's wrong? Because it provides a simple starting point that anyone can immediately grasp and then build upon.
If we (the scientific community) want laypeople to stop rolling their eyes whenever quantum mechanics is mentioned we need to start communicating better. You spent tons of money and years of research to create a supersolid, but you can't make a simple gif animation conveying what it is?
This is why we have to fight tooth and nail for every cent that goes to NASA while the military can waste hundreds of billions on planes that don't work.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
This is a similar technique to the one that was used last year to create metallic hydrogen.