By Peter Weiss
When particles of matter cooperate with each other, the result can be something super. For instance, there’s superconductivity, in which coordinated pairs of electrons flow resistancefree through a solid, and there’s superfluidity, in which atoms or molecules flow without friction.
Now, Deborah S. Jin and her colleagues at JILA, a Boulder, Colo.–based joint research operation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, have conjured up a muscular new super state of matter.