became supercold, allowing the experiment to reach the record-breaking temperature required for the condensate to form.

The Bose-Einstein condensate is not a new molecule, but its atoms, cooled to a virtual standstill, behave as a single entity. Rather than buzzing around as atoms usually do, the cold atoms move in lockstep - at identical speed and direction - much as photons do in a laser beam. These atoms are as different from normal rubidium atoms as an ice crystal is from cold water. "It really is a new state of matter," Wieman said. "It has completely different properties from any other kind of matter."

Wieman believes that the most immediate value of the research will be the insights it allows into how the laws of quantum mechanics affect the behavior of matter when atoms (or electrons) are contained in a volume not much bigger than the atoms themselves. This type of physics, which is increasingly important because electronic components are getting so small, is traditionally studied by making extremely small structures. In making the Bose-Einstein condensates, researchers in effect make incredibly big atoms. "These atoms enable researchers to study the same physics while working with much larger containers," Wieman explains, and should allow them to carry out novel studies and gain new insights into this area of physics.

Learning just what the properties of the BECs are and how they may be applied will keep physicists busy for years. Knowledge of the laws that govern matter in this ultra-cold, organized state may yield insights into the mysteries of superconductivity and superfluidity. Wolfgang Ketterle's group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has already succeeded in using a BEC to make the world's first "atom laser," that fires a narrow beam of coherent "matter waves" with about a million atoms per pulse. Coherent beams of atoms could eventually allow much finer measurements and manipulations - such as moving atoms around one by one or "writing" atoms into semiconductors.

Other researchers hope the discovery will help them learn why certain materials manage to conduct electrical current without resistance. Astrophysicists are looking into a possible connection between Bose-Einstein condensates and the distribution of matter in the early universe. While the initial condensate consisted of rubidium molecules, and Ketterle's "atom laser" uses sodium, in principle three-quarters of the elements could exist in the Bose-Einstein condensate state. Researchers in Randall Hulet's lab at Rice University have already found evidence of a BEC of lithium.

So begins a new era in condensed matter and atomic physics. Like other epochal scientific discoveries, this one builds on years of basic research by individuals worldwide who are studying the physics of using laser light to cool and manipulate atoms, using magnetic fields to confine and cool clouds of atoms, and exploring how atoms behave at ultra low temperatures. Such incremental advances converge at certain points to give insights that change how we view old questions, generate new ones, and eventually, lead to unforseen products and conclusions. It took years for the laser to transcend its experimental status and evolve into today's ubiquitous tool. We don't know yet how or when Bose-Einstein condensates will affect everyday life, but they are likely to advance science and benefit society significantly.

For now, physicists are delighted to explore the wave nature of atoms. And they can do so economically: Wieman and Cornell cooled their atoms with the same lasers found in ordinary CD players, and the whole setup costs only about $50,000. This is a small sum in modern experimental science, and laboratories worldwide are already duplicating the apparatus so they can pursue the research on their own.

universities, while faculty members move into industry or Federal laboratories. The NSF's Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry, for example, stimulates a mix of industry/university linkages. This initiative targets high-risk, high-gain fundamental research; development of innovative, collaborative industry/ university educational programs; and direct transfer of new knowledge between universities and industry.

PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

Partnerships are also a means for building scientific instrumentation and facilities. Increasingly, the Federal government is providing the resources to build major new scientific user facilities, and other partners are sponsoring and developing user-research stations. In other cases, the entire research device comes into being only with the combined support of state and local government, industry, private foundations, universities,

ets orbiting them, the Swiss scientists identified an object with a mass at least half that of Jupiter but closer to its star, 51 Pegasi, than Mercury is to the Sun. In short order, University of San Francisco astronomers Geoffrey Marcy and Paul Butler, funded by the National Science Foundation, confirmed the Swiss discovery and further reported that they had detected companions orbiting the stars 70 Virginis, in the constellation Virgo, and 47 Ursae Majoris, in the Big Dipper constellation. Since then, several low-mass companions to other stars outside our solar system have been discovered, and it seems likely that such bodies are abundant in the galaxy.

Most of the stellar companions found so far are more massive and revolve in more eccentric - less circular orbits than our solar system's planets. This means the companions may be failed stars, or brown dwarfs, or that planets may form or evolve in ways previously unimagined.

This new era in planetary exploration stems from the patience of the astronomers, many of whom spent years faithfully scanning the heavens, and from advances in detection techniques. Most of the new planets were identified indirectly by spectroscopy, a technique that uses an instrument to disperse starlight into its component colors and then measures changes in the wavelength of the light a star emits as it moves away or toward its observer. Such changes betray wobbles in the star's motion caused by the periodic gravitational tug of a planet.

Spectroscopy is most sensitive to stellar companions like Jupiter or Saturn in close, short-period orbits. Another method, astrometry, measures a zig-zag in stellar positions and is better suited to detect planets in large, leisurely orbits more akin to, or longer than, Jupiter's 12-year orbit. Direct observation will require new advanced instrumentation, able to discern the faint light reflected by the planet despite the glare from the nearby parent star.

Some scientists see the recent developments as a natural extension of the Copernican revolution, which 500 years ago so heretically reversed the earth's status as the center of the universe. It is clear that the Sun is a star like other stars and that many other stars may also have planetary systems. Astronomers are elated at the prospect of having other planets to compare to those in our solar system.

The discoveries coincide with a Federal initiative to expand astronomy and space science research around the theme of exploring the origins of matter, galaxies, planetary systems, and life. This effort will spur development of innovative technologies, including a space-based infrared observatory to be called the PlanetFinder interferometer, which will be capable of imaging and studying planets like earth around nearby stars. The spate of new research in years to come is likely to transform our understanding of how stars and planets form and perhaps may confirm our hope that we are not the lone intelligent beings in the galaxy.

research centers to conduct long-term, goal-oriented research in areas of mutual interest. The Sea Grant and National Estuarine Research Reserve programs of DOC/NOAA leverage Federal resources by requiring state matching funds and encouraging partnerships with industry.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

IN FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE

In many research fields the path to scientific advances increasingly involves international collaboration. International partnerships allow us to pursue important elements of our research agenda, even when financial, human, infrastructure, or other factors are limiting. For nearly 40 years, scientific activities in Antarctica have been inherently international, with the United States assuming leadership responsi

bilities in some arenas, and relying on other nations
for hospitality and support elsewhere. Some major
research endeavors, such as space missions, giant
particle accelerators, astronomical observatories, the
quest for fusion energy, and mapping the human
genome, are so resource intensive and necessarily
one-of-a-kind that international cost-sharing,
exchanges, or in-kind contributions have become com-
monplace. Recent examples include NSF's Gemini
Telescopes and several detectors for DOE's high-
energy and nuclear physics facilities. Collaborations
with individual investigators in other countries, occa-
sional use of specialized foreign apparatus, multi-year
international experiments, and participation in facil-
ity or device development and construction routinely
make state-of-the-art capabilities in other countries
available to American scientists and their students,
and vice versa.