Spring Break
Nobel Prize winner part of physics lecture series
Madeline Novey
Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: News
Physicists use the Absolute Scale to measure extreme cold temperatures that exceed Fahrenheit or Celsius scale-limits. At Absolute Zero or negative 459 degrees Fahrenheit, there is no molecular movement-in other words, all atom movement is stopped.
While some have come close, within 1/10,000 of a degree above Absolute Zero, no scientist has achieved Absolute Zero. Cornell and his team beat the past when they reached one-billionth of a degree above Absolute zero and created the first sample of BEC in history.
Cornell said that the matter, held in an apparatus his team designed, was cooled using the energy from a laser and then followed by an evaporative cooling technique he compared to the science behind waiting for a cup of coffee to cool.
Cornell said that he and Weinman "borrowed" the laser cooling technique, the "hottest thing in cold in the 1980s," from 1997 Nobel Prize winners Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips. It worked by shooting six laser beams at the atoms in the gas. The atoms absorbed the energy of the laser and cooled as their movement slowed by the force of the light.
Because the atoms were still not cold enough to become Bose-Einstein condensate, the scientists applied an evaporative cooling technique.
Campus Interaction
Throughout the day Thursday, Cornell interacted with every facet of the physics department including graduate students, undergraduates and a group of high school physics students.
He said that he and the students "shot the breeze" and talked about things "sometimes having to do with science, some having to do with careers."
Graduate physics students Julie Keele and Shannon Woods said that everyone who sat with Cornell was a "little bit timid" and there were times where no one spoke.
When the anxiety levels subsided and conversation picked up, students drilled the world-renowned physicist about his work, his career and his winning the Nobel Prize.
While some have come close, within 1/10,000 of a degree above Absolute Zero, no scientist has achieved Absolute Zero. Cornell and his team beat the past when they reached one-billionth of a degree above Absolute zero and created the first sample of BEC in history.
Cornell said that the matter, held in an apparatus his team designed, was cooled using the energy from a laser and then followed by an evaporative cooling technique he compared to the science behind waiting for a cup of coffee to cool.
Cornell said that he and Weinman "borrowed" the laser cooling technique, the "hottest thing in cold in the 1980s," from 1997 Nobel Prize winners Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips. It worked by shooting six laser beams at the atoms in the gas. The atoms absorbed the energy of the laser and cooled as their movement slowed by the force of the light.
Because the atoms were still not cold enough to become Bose-Einstein condensate, the scientists applied an evaporative cooling technique.
Campus Interaction
Throughout the day Thursday, Cornell interacted with every facet of the physics department including graduate students, undergraduates and a group of high school physics students.
He said that he and the students "shot the breeze" and talked about things "sometimes having to do with science, some having to do with careers."
Graduate physics students Julie Keele and Shannon Woods said that everyone who sat with Cornell was a "little bit timid" and there were times where no one spoke.
When the anxiety levels subsided and conversation picked up, students drilled the world-renowned physicist about his work, his career and his winning the Nobel Prize.
Be the first to comment on this story