First of all let me say that I am not a scientist. This article is in the simplest form, never the less the topic is an interesting one.

The year was 1995 and two scientists had gotten together and what they accomplished was nothing less than astounding. Carl E. Wieman and Eric A. Cornell had created a new form of matter known as the Bose-Einstein condensate. Satyendra Nath Bose was an Indian Physicist of great renown who was born in 1894. Bose was so proficient and well know among the scientific community that when a position opened up for professor at Dacca, even though he didn't have his doctorate yet, Einstein recommended him and he got it.

To put it very simply the Bose-Einstein Distribution is the statistical behavior of spinning integer particles (*bosons). The behave very different than **Fermions at very low temperatures. Unlimited numbers can come together in the same energy state and this is called condensation. Einstein built on the work of Bose when he predicted that this matter could exist in 1924. For over 70 years scientists tried to prove that this theory was correct, but none succeeded until 1995. But how did Wieman and Cornell finally prove the theory?

Magnetic and laser traps were used to create a tiny ball of rubidium atoms. This type of atom is the most stationary. An oddly shaped glass cell was used to create the condensate. The condensate certainly was not big by our standards but it was created and did exist. It was only 20 microns in diameter and about 1/5 the diameter of a human hair.

Wieman showed that he could develop much cheaper equipment and use it to create the condensation. Instead of using lasers that cost $150,000 each at the time, he pioneered the use of a diode laser that cost only $200, this was quite a cost saving to the project. Essentially he was using the same type of laser that is now commonly found in home dvd players. The scientific community when first hearing of these experiments was very skeptical but as the experiments progressed more physicists joined in. The lasers were used to trap the rubidium atoms after they were slowed down. Next the rubidium was bombarded with photons from infrared beams. The bombardment took place on all sides and up and down. The frequency of the light only effected the atoms that moved toward the photons. The atoms were cooled down to millionths of degree above absolute zero but were still too warm. The laser trap was turned off and a magnetic trap took over. Now further cooling was accomplished by getting rid of the hottest atoms. A time averaged orbiting potential trap had now been invented which allowed enough atoms to remain to form the condensate.

The law of physics doesn't allow for getting to absolute zero but you get get very close. Absolute zero is minus 273.15 Celsius or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit . These experiments involved much personnel. There were eight graduate students and three undergraduate students involved beside the physicists.

The experiments led to many break throughs, one such being the creation of extremely small computer chips. Another break through allowed researchers to slow light from 186,000 miles per second to 38 miles per second by shinning the light through the condensate. There were other successful experiments such as achieving the first Fermi degenerate gas of atoms, a state of matter in which atoms behave like waves. Who knows what we may derive from the success of the original experiments, maybe some new form of propulsion or materials with undreamed of properties, but what ever happens we will owe it all to the scientists in 1995 had the foresight and talent to actually create the world's first Bose-Einstein condensate

*Bosons particles spin and are not constrained by the Pauli exclusion principle which is complicated but boils down to no two electrons in an atom can have identical quantum numbers and doesn't apply to fermions because they have half integer spin.

**Fermions are particles that have a half integer spin.and are constrained by the Pauli exclusion principle.