Lecture Background

The recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics discusses the weird world of subatomic physics that is encountered near absolute zero. As atoms get colder and colder, they become more and more like waves, and less like particles, which can result in a quantum mechanical identity crisis, the type of "condensation" predicted 80 years ago by Albert Einstein. Eric Cornell explains how one reaches the necessary record-low temperatures, and why one goes to all the trouble to make this bizarre state of matter.

Highlights from the event as well as the video from the Lecture and Colloquium held at Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, India on 23-24 September 2009 are now online.