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Scientists Make New Form of Matter
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
February 11 2004 | 636 views

Scientists have created a new form of matter, which they call fermionic gas, from a half-million potassium atoms chilled at close to the coolest possible temperature. To do this, scientists used lasers to trap the small cloud of potassium atoms. Once the atoms were trapped, scientists chilled the atoms to 50 billionths of a degree above absolute zero, or minus-459 degrees F.

Fermions are a class of elementary subatomic particles that includes electrons, and they are among the building blocks of atoms and molecules. According to a law of quantum mechanics, no two identical fermions may occupy the same quantum state because the matter behaves in waves and not individual particles. But scientists found that when they applied a magnetic field to the freezing atoms, the atoms would briefly match up in pairs and create a condensate, behaving in a wave pattern.

Shortly, scientists will examine its behavior for evidence into the paradoxical laws of quantum mechanics, but for now there is no practical use for fermionic gas, they say. They believe that eventually the gas could help engineers achieve superconductivity, or the state in which electricity flows without resistance, at everyday temperatures.

USA Today January 29, 2004


Dr. Mercola''s Comments
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
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While this story doesn't have much to do with health it is not every day that scientists create a new form of matter. It’s always interesting to hear about new discoveries that will some day be likely to change the world as we know it.

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