DECELERATION CAN BE AS IMPORTANT AS ACCELERATION when doing atom-trap experiments. A team of physicists at the Max Planck Institute (Heidelberg; contact Rudolf Grimm, r.grimm@mpi-hd.mpg.de) and the Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris) have succeeded in slowing cesium atoms, just out of the oven, from a velocity of 160 m/sec down to a speed (8 m/sec) where they can easily be captured in a trap, all in a space of only 10 cm, rather than the customary 1 m. Just as important as the slowdown are the tight beam focus and the narrow range of final velocities among atoms in the beam. This is potentially important for future atom lithography applications and for Bose-Einstein condensate studies. The deceleration is accomplished through the palpable force of laser light. Besides producing an efficient collimation of cold atom beams, this laser scheme can be used to "clean" beams by removing unwanted isotopes and might help to manipulate exotic atoms which cannot be controlled by other means. (J. Soding et al., Physical Review Letters, 24 February 1997.)