Letters
By Science News
Superfluid’s roots
I’m confused. A little. I thought that a Bose-Einstein condensate occurred only in a gas and that the first time it was achieved was in 1995 using rubidium atoms. “A matter of solidity” (SN: 9/11/10, p. 22) states, “Superfluidity arises when the atoms in superfluid helium join up in a quantum state called a Bose-Einstein condensate.” Further reading leads me to believe that the quoted statement may not be accurate. Are the helium atoms just behaving similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate?
By the way, just so you can add me to any demographic data, I’m a machinist, typical blue-collar, 54 years old and have been reading Science News since I was about 10 years old.
Eric R. Snow, Whidbey Island, Wash.
Bose-Einstein condensation, in which atoms lose their individual identity and begin to move as a collective quantum mass, was indeed observed experimentally for the first time in 1995 in supercooled rubidium atoms. But it was proposed theoretically in the 1920s and, soon after superfluidity was discovered in liquid helium in the 1930s, researchers argued that Bose-Einstein condensation could be the explanation. Today scientists think that superfluidity is associated with a more generalized version of Bose-Einstein condensation as laid out in the 1950s by Oliver Penrose. —Alexandra Witze
The source for science news
I really liked chief editor Tom Siegfried’s column in Science News (“Staying on the lookout for rumors disguised as news,” SN: 9/25/10, p. 2) about “lax reporting” in science journalism nowadays and how your magazine tries to fight that tendency. I thought, “This is why I read Science News” — your content is trustworthy, and I’m an interested (in science) layperson (which doesn’t mean professional scientists can’t read SN). The Internet makes it easy for inaccuracies to become global. Tom mentioned a blogger who thought Heisenberg’s famous uncertainty principle had been overturned. No, not yet (if ever). Tom describes how SN writer Laura Sanders got to the truth of the matter (Deleted Scenes blog, SN Online: 8/5/10). I humorously offer an informational correlate to Heisenberg’s quantum uncertainty: If it’s not in Science News, be wary (uncertain).
Paul Rizzuto, Orange, N.J.