Coke Bottle Quantum Physics
Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 17:14
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Don't be fooled by the collection of empty soda bottles in James Cryan's office at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Cryan isn't a caffeine fiend -the cola bottles are for science. As a graduate student with the PULSE Institute for Ultrafast Energy Science, he is studying how nitrogen gas responds to stimulation by an optical laser, and he needed a container for the gas. Instead of ordering a cell and waiting for it to arrive, Cryan cast about for something close at hand -and happened upon one of the empty Coke bottles on his desk.