Quantum
Bose-Einstein

The impossibility of pinpointing an electron at any precise time was analyzed by Heisenberg, who in 1927 formulated the uncertainty principle. This principle states the impossibility of simultaneously specifying the precise position and momentum of any particle. In other words, the more accurately a particle's momentum is measured and known, the less accuracy there can be in the measurement and knowledge of its position. This principle is also fundamental to the understanding of quantum mechanics as it is generally accepted today: The wave and particle character of electromagnetic radiation can be understood as two complementary properties of radiation.

Another way of expressing the uncertainty principle is that the wavelength of a quantum mechanical principle is inversely proportional to its momentum. As atoms are cooled they slow down and their corresponding wavelength grows larger. At a low enough temperature this wavelength is predicted to exceed the spacing between particles, causing atoms to overlap, becoming indistinguishable, and melding into a single quantum state. In 1995 a team of Colorado scientists, led by National Institutes of Standards and Technology physicist Eric Cornell and University of Colorado physicist Carl Weiman, cooled rubidium atoms to a temperature so low that the particles entered this merged state, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. The condensate essentially behaves like one atom even though it is made up of thousands.

Quantum
Bose-Einstein