Scientists at the University of Colorado say they have created a new form of matter and predict it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for use in power distribution, more efficient trains and countless other applications. The new matter form is called a fermionic condensate, and it is the sixth known form of matter - after gases, solids, liquids, plasma and Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995. The new material brings researchers one step closer to an everyday, usable superconductor - a material that conducts electricity without losing any of its energy. The researchers cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, which is the point at which matter stops moving. They confined that supercooled gas in a vacuum chamber, then used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium atoms into pairing up. The way the potassium atoms acted suggested the behaviour might be translated into a room-temperature solid, according to the researchers.
