Scientists have achieved the lowest temperature ever to be recorded

(Image credit: University of New Mexico)

Scientists from the University of New Mexico have been conducting research with extremely low temperatures. Using a different lasers, these scientists were able to cool down a crystal to 91^o Kelvin. That’s about -296^oF (or -182^oC if you’re that one guy who is too cool for Fahrenheit).

Aram Gragossian is a research assistant who worked on the project to cool down the crystal. Here is what he had to say:

“Right now, anything that cools other parts of a system has moving parts. Most of the time, there’s liquid running through it that adds vibrations which can impact the precision or resolution of the device. But, when you have optical refrigeration, you can go to low temperatures without any vibrations and without any moving parts, making it convenient for a lot of applications.”

It isn’t difficult to cool down a liquid or even air, but cooling down a solid is an entirely different ball game. It is much more difficult to subtract thermal energy from a solid object.

This scientific breakthrough can have a number of practical applications in different areas such as medicine and micro technology.

For more information, check out the published article in the Scientific Reports.

from Nerd Reactor