Last Thursday, September 29th, DAALI partner Antonio Rubio, post-doc researcher from ICFO, participated in the European Researchers Night, by giving a talk to the public at large about ultra cold atom gases.
Entitled “Recepta per preparar el punt més fred de l’univers” (in English “A recipe for preparing the coolest spot in the Universe”), Antonio talked about how lasers have become an essential technology in our day-to-day life, but also in many research laboratories.
During his talk, he mentioned that among the many applications, laser can be used to retrieve information, to carve materials, or even be used during surgical operations. But, as anti-intuitive as it may be, there is an application that is not known but used a lot, and it refers to how scientists use lasers to cool things down. So Antonio had the chance to explain, step by step, how he and his colleagues at ICFO cool down cloud of gases of atoms that are at room temperature and bring them down to temperatures that can become the coldest spot we know in the universe. And in doing so, he also explained several applications that are based on these clouds of ultra cold atoms, such as atomic clocks and their use to drastically improve various technologies, one of them GPS navigation systems.
European Researcher’s Night
The European Night of Research (web in Catalan) is celebrated every year on the last Thursday or Friday of September in more than 300 cities in 30 countries across Europe. Its aim is to bring research, innovation and its protagonists, the scientists, closer to the public in a simple and fun way. All types of public, from schools, families and children to young people or adults of all ages, have the opportunity to learn and participate in the science that is being conducted in their cities territory through different activities such as workshops, talks, shows, experiments, astronomical observations and games.
