Physicists exploit a quantum rule to create a new kind of crystal
Atoms can arrange themselves in regular configurations thanks to the Pauli exclusion principle
![lithium atoms confined in lasers](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/051820_EC_pauli-crystals_feat.jpg?fit=1028%2C579&ssl=1)
Scientists created a new type of crystal, based only on a quantum rule called the Pauli exclusion principle, by using lasers to confine lithium atoms (illustrated at center) to a region within a vacuum chamber.
S. Jochim Group/Heidelberg Univ.