LASERS can chill atoms to within a whisker of absolute zero, but existing
techniques work only with atoms or molecules that can absorb the frequency of
light being used.
Now Vladan Vuletic and Steven Chu at Stanford University in California have
shown that atoms can also be brought to a standstill by repeatedly bouncing
light off them. Their method should work with a much wider range of atoms and
molecules (Physical Review Letters, vol 84, p 3787).
