Number 190 (Story #4), August 16, 1994 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION is a hypothetical state of matter in which a gas of atoms is cooled to such a low temperature that the atoms begin to overlay and eventually assume a single ensemble quantum state. This is a manifestation of the uncertainty principle: near absolute zero the uncertainty in the atoms' momentum is reduced so there must be a consequential increase the uncertainty as to their whereabouts. Atoms in the Bose-Einstein condition hold great interest for scientists since they would constitute an exotic sort of "coherent" matter with potentially novel thermodynamic and optical properties. In general, condensation requires that the participating atoms be bosons (particles with an integer-valued spin) and that they be very densely packed. The main problems here are achieving the requisite density and temperature. Recently several groups have come close to success with traps that cool atoms to 100 microkelvins or less and hold them with either crossed laser beams, or magnetic fields that can be eased gradually to allow warmer atoms to evaporate away, or with a combination of these approaches (16 May, Physical Review Letters). MIT has the density, 10**14 atoms/cm**3, and needs to go down a factor of 3 in temperature. NIST, working with cesium atoms, has the temperature, 700 nK (the coldest temperature in a sample of atoms ever recorded), but not the density. Groups at Colorado and Stanford are also in the running. (Science, 8 July.)