Month: June 2020

Enlarge / This sequence of false-color images shows the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the Cold Atom Laboratory prototype at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the temperature gets progressively closer to absolute zero, the temperature at which atoms have almost no motion. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Physicists at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have created a rare quantum state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in space for the first time, according to a recent paper published in the journal Nature. The physicists did so by placing a compact experimental setup the size of a mini-fridge on board the International Space Station (ISS). It's called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), aka "the coolest spot in the universe."

BECs are named in honor of Albert Einstein and Indian physicist Satyendra Bose, who predicted the possibility in the 1920s that the wavelike nature of atoms might allow the atoms to spread out and overlap if they are packed closely enough together. At normal temperatures, atoms act like billiard balls, bouncing off one another. Lowering the temperature reduces their speed. If the temperature gets low enough (billionths of a degree above absolute zero) and the atoms are densely packed enough, the different matter waves will be able to "sense" one another and coordinate themselves as if they were one big "superatom."

Physicists Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman, then at the University of Colorado's JILA facility, created the first BECs in the laboratory in 1995. Using a laser trap, they cooled about 10 million rubidium gas atoms; the cooled atoms were held in place by a magnetic field. But the atoms still weren't cold enough to form a BEC, so they added a second step, evaporative cooling, in which a web of magnetic fields conspire to kick out the hottest atoms so that the cooler atoms can move more closely together. The process works in much the same way that evaporative cooling occurs with your morning cup of coffee; the hotter atoms rise to the top of the magnetic trap and "jump out" as steam.

Enlarge / BEIJING, CHINA - JUNE 15: A Chinese epidemic control worker performs a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 on a man who had contact with the the Xinfadi Wholesale Market. Authorities are trying to contain the outbreak linked to the Xinfadi wholesale food market, Beijing's biggest supplier of produce and meat. Several neighborhoods have been locked down, and at least two other food markets were closed, as tens of thousands of people are being urged to get tested for COVID-19 at sites set up around the city. (credit: Getty | Kevin Frayer)

Authorities in Beijing have locked down parts of the city, reinstated some restrictions, and are testing tens of thousands of residents amid a burst of new SARS-CoV-2 infections.

As of Monday, authorities have reported 79 cases in four days. Almost all of the cases link to the Xinfadi food market, the city’s largest wholesale meat and vegetable market. The market has a staggeringly large number of patrons, and experts fear that there are many more cases yet to be identified, each of which could spark additional outbreaks.

Before this, Beijing had gone more than 50 days without seeing any locally acquired cases of COVID-19.

Enlarge / A bloody pig mask allegedly mailed to cyberstalking victims by then-eBay employees. (credit: FBI)

Six former eBay employees were "charged with leading a cyberstalking campaign" against a newsletter editor and publisher, which "included sending the couple anonymous, threatening messages, disturbing deliveries—including a box of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, and a bloody pig mask—and conducting covert surveillance of the victims," the US Department of Justice and US Attorney's Office in Massachusetts announced today.

James Baugh, 45, is eBay's former senior director of safety and security, and David Harville, 48, is eBay's former director of global resiliency—both were arrested today and charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Each charge "carr[ies] a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution," the DOJ said.

The bloody pig mask was a Halloween mask and shipped via Amazon.com, a court document said. The mask arrived at the victims' home the same day one of the victims "received an email reporting that a 'Preserved Fetal Pig' had been ordered online to be sent to the Victims' house," the document said. A few days later, the victims "received a box of cockroaches" that was purchased from a roach breeder and seller.