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Now that physicists can trap and hold a single atom in a cold magnetic bottle, I propose that individuals be able to buy their very own pet atom. They could choose their favorite element, and the atom would come in the bottle with viewing ports (windows to you), and a laser with frequency tuned right
at the atom's resonance frequency. Photons would be scattered at a rate of about 10^9 per second, making it easy to see the atom in a darkened room. By varying the magnetic fields in a tricksy way, the atom could be made to dance around in various patterns. If the atom has a lower-lying metastable state, the light scattering will blink on and off. This atom will have a lot more personality than the once-popular pet rocks or a Chia pet or even a Tamagotchi.
I believe such a Pet Atom would make an excellent sending off gift for a young person going off to read physics at Cambridge.
Photo of single trapped atom
http://www.iontrap....ivedNews/index.html
actually its an ion, which is just a charged atom [sqeaketh the wheel, Aug 17 2012]
how to trap an anti-matter atom
http://www.scientif...-alpha-1000-seconds
same as atom, only different [sqeaketh the wheel, Aug 18 2012]
A Boy and His Atom
http://www.youtube....ULC7W4UpxFGArH7oD7i
stop-action movie with a pet atom as co-star [sqeaketh the wheel, May 01 2013]
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are you off to Cambridge [sqeaketh]? |
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Sounds like a nexcellent idea, but I have a horrible
feeling that the smaller the item to be contained,
the larger the apparatus required to do so. [+] |
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//are you off to Cambridge?//
I had in mind MaxwellBuchanan's offspring, who recently was admitted to Cambridge physics. |
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Cool in any case (no pun intended), but could you
really get a single atom it to absorb and reemit
enough, even tuning the illuminating beam to
optimal frequency(s), to see it with a naked eye?
Super-cool as that would be, I’m skeptical. |
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//could you really get a single atom it to absorb and reemit enough//
Yes, see [link] for a Photo of single trapped atom. An atom can scatter one photon per radiative lifetime, which can be in the nanosecond range, so 10^9 times per second. If your eye or a camera can collect 10^3 of those per second, you can see it with the naked eye! That part is baked. The tricky bit is putting all the hardware into a small gift package, as [MB] said. If we could get say 1000 pre-orders, then economy of scale might make it possible. You can place your order at PetAtom.com, unless that site goes down again as it seems always to be. |
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// grow your own avogadro // |
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Has anyone figured out how to trap an anti-matter atom yet? ...and would it be called a mota? |
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Ionised antiHydrogen (antiProtons) can be
contained quite nicely in your ordinary garden-
variety magnetic bottle; you just need to
attach the
red wire to the black terminal, and vice versa. |
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//Has anyone figured out how to trap an anti-matter atom yet? //
Yep they did. See [link]. We are getting close to an anti-matter warp drive? Maybe not. |
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Cooool. I will call mine Spot. |
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Tamagotchi miniature black holes: stop feeding it and it evaporates; feed it too much and it eats the planet. |
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I would get Einsteinium and name it Albert. |
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//attach the red wire to the black terminal |
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I thought it was the blue wire...dammit |
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I like this, but I just know that as soon as I collect the
complete set, the ALICE experiment at CERN will produce
stable superpartners and I'll have to start all over again.
[+] |
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//Like fission a barrel.//
[marked-for-tagline] |
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IBM just released a stop-action movie with a pet atom as co-star. See link. |
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[+] woo hoo - way to go [squeaketh]!! Sorry I missed this first time around.
Named mine Adam. |
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ASCII art of single trapped atom |
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I had to perform surgery on mine. Here's its colon : |
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