MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy Distinguished Lecture Series

Steven Chu, Stanford University
(1997 Nobel Prize in Physics)
8:00 pm,  23 October 2001
Kellogg Center Auditorium

Public lecture: "Laser Cooling and Trapping: A Random Walk in Science" 

This lecture will review how atoms can be cooled to temperatures below a
millionth of a degrees above absolute zero. Once chilled to these temperatures,
they can be easily held with light or magnetic fields. A sampling of the
applications of this new technology will be discussed, including ultra-precise
atomic clocks and new instruments of extraordinary accuracy. Finally, we will
show how these methods have been extended into biology, and have enabled us to
watch the motion of individual bio-molecules in real time.  I will try to place
this work into a larger historical context. Also, science often progresses
without a clear vision of the future, and the history of laser cooling and
trapping is such an example.