Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Han Purple

Q. What do you get if you combine de Broglie wavelengths, magnets, and purple pigment from ancient terracotta Chinese soldiers?

A. Marcelo Jaime's recent physics discovery. http://www.lanl.gov/worldview/news/releases/archive/04-094.shtml

If you chill Han Purple and throw it through 60 Teslas of magnetic force, the magnetic moments of all the particles start oscillating in unison, as if they were one big particle. They call it Bose-Einstein Condensation-yes, that's our Einstein--and it's like a superconductor for magnets. Very cool. I'm writing a paper on it, so if you want more details, let me know. :-)

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