Now that's cool...

[cdybedahl]

Researchers at MIT have set a new low-temperature record. They've managed to cool a bit of sodium gas down to half a nanokelvin, or, differently put, 0.0000000005 degrees above absolute zero. At this temperature, they hope to find new and interesting ways in which matter interact, like when two other groups got below a microkelvin and observed Bose-Einstein Condensates (and got the 2001 Physics Nobel Prize for their efforts).