It wasn’t so long ago that the Coldest Spot in the Universe was drifting out in the vast emptiness of space between galaxies. Warmed only by the meager crackling of energy left over from the Big Bang, atoms out there manage no more than a brisk 454 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
Today the Coldest Spot in the Universe resides in Boulder, Colorado. Hardly anyone is complaining, though. Business remains brisk in downtown Boulder’s hip eateries and boutiques, and hikers haven’t recorded any negative impact on the town’s treasured scenic resources. No wonder: the Coldest Spot is just a crumb of space a quarter-inch wide sitting in a lipstick-size glass tube. The tube is surrounded by a miniature forest of lenses, vacuum pumps, and laser beams, and the whole deal is neatly tucked away in Carl Wieman’s modest lab in a small, towerlike physics building at the University of Colorado.
The ...
