ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥'s 2001 Nobel laureates, Distinguished Professor Carl Wieman of the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder and Senior Scientist Eric Cornell of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will give a free public lecture on April 17.
The lecture, titled "Making the World's Coldest Stuff: Two Coloradans Tell How They Won the Nobel Prize," will begin at 8 p.m. in Macky Auditorium on the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder campus. No tickets or reservations are required.
Wieman and Cornell received the Nobel Prize in physics for their landmark 1995 creation of the world's first Bose-Einstein condensate, a new form of matter created by cooling atoms to almost absolute zero. They shared the prize with Wolfgang Ketterle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The lecture will include demonstrations and slide illustrations. "We will explain how one goes about cooling a gas to somewhere below a millionth of a degree above absolute zero and describe the Bose-Einstein condensate, a weird new form of matter that only exists at that unimaginably low temperature," Cornell said.
Wieman is a distinguished professor of physics and has taught at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder since 1984. Cornell is a senior scientist at NIST and an adjoint professor of physics at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder who has been with JILA, a joint institute of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder and NIST, since 1990. Both Wieman and Cornell are fellows of JILA.
The lecture is sponsored by JILA, NIST and the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder Graduate School.
Predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein, who built on the work of Satyendra Nath Bose, a Bose-Einstein condensate occurs when the wavelengths of individual atoms begin to overlap and behave in identical fashion, forming a "superatom." The "superatom" occurs when laboratory apparatus is used to chill a group of atoms to just a few hundred billionths of a degree above absolute zero or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.
The condensate allows scientists to study the strange and extremely small world of quantum physics as if they are looking through a giant magnifying glass. Its creation established a new branch of atomic physics that has provided a treasure-trove of scientific discoveries.
Background information and photographs on the discovery are posted on the Internet at (click on Nobel) and at .
Parking for the lecture will be available at the Euclid Autopark next to the University Memorial Center for $1.25. >From Denver take Highway 36 to the Baseline Road exit, turn left on Baseline, right on Broadway and right again at the second traffic light, onto Euclid. The parking structure is located one-half block down Euclid on the left.
Parking also will be available for $1.25 near Macky Auditorium where attendants will be on duty and parking for the disabled will be available. To park near Macky, turn east onto University Avenue from the intersection of University and Broadway and enter campus where University passes Macky.
People who need parking assistance should call in advance. For information call (303) 492-7789.