My explorations of the technical world started with Legos, with which I was quite creative in constructing moving objects with the basic building blocks that were then available. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
Amplifying atoms is more subtle than amplifying electromagnetic waves because atoms can only change their quantum state and cannot be created. Therefore, even if one could amplify gold atoms, one would not realize the dreams of medieval alchemy. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
Explorations into chemistry were done in our basement, sometimes with friends, and my parents must have had quite a bit of confidence in my abilities when they allowed me to experiment with explosive mixtures. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
After earning my Ph.D., I stayed at the Max-Planck Institute as a postdoc, working on laser excitation of Rydberg states of triatomic hydrogen and helium hydride. I also succeeded in analyzing all the emission spectra of helium hydride, which I had discovered during my Ph.D. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
Bose-Einstein condensation is one of the most intriguing phenomena predicted by quantum statistical mechanics. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
Laser cooling opened a new route to ultralow temperature physics. Laser cooling experiments, with room temperature vacuum chambers and easy optical access, look very different from cryogenic cells with multi-layer thermal shielding around them. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
Zero kelvin is the lowest possible temperature. At absolute zero, all motion comes to a standstill. It is obvious that a lower temperature is not feasible because there is no velocity smaller than zero and no energy content less than nothing. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
Running is a way for me to relax. With one hour of intense running, I can get a lot of physical exercise. I can relax my body. I feel a tension in my muscles when I don’t run. In that sense, I need to get out a few times a week in order to do my work as a scientist, which involves a lot of sitting still. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
To go below one nanokelvin is like running a mile below four minutes for the first time. Wolfgang Ketterle Read Quote
