At school, when we are still young, we are taught about the three main states of matter, which are liquid, gas, and solid – these are common knowledge. Then, it is already a shock when we discover that there is a fourth state of matter, plasma, because it is not commonly taught to everyone. And as if that were not enough, scientists have gone after the fifth state of matter – yes, maybe it is time for schools to update their physics books.
Before the fifth state of matter, let’s look at the four that we already know
Before we talk about the fifth state of matter itself, let’s remember the well-known three states of matter:
- Liquid: Here, the particles move more freely, which allows fluidity.
- Gaseous: In this state, the particles are completely dispersed, occupying all the available space.
- Solid: On the other hand, here, the particles are organized and vibrate in fixed positions.
And what about plasma? Well, this state is more peculiar; after all, we only find it in lightning and the sun. In it, atoms lose their electrons, forming a kind of “soup” of charged particles. It is really difficult to see in our daily lives. And as if it were not enough to have the four states of matter already well established, scientists went looking for more and finally found the fifth after decades of searching for it.
What is this fifth state of matter all about?
We’re talking about decades of research, and it wasn’t for nothing. Back in 1920, Albert Einstein himself, along with physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, had already predicted the fifth state of matter (another accurate prediction by Einstein, like the one he had guessed more than 100 years ago). This idea came about when they cooled particles called bosons to temperatures very close to absolute zero. The result? These particles would lose their individual identities and would start to act as a single “superparticle.”
How and why did this happen? Well, experts explained that, with so little energy, these bosons can no longer be different from each other. In other words, since they don’t move enough, it’s impossible to distinguish them and they end up merging into a collective quantum state. Since this behavior is not seen in any other known state, scientists have created a new one, so to speak.
Ok, but what is the name of this discovery? The particle that gave rise to the fifth state of matter is called the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). It was only really confirmed more than 70 years after Einstein and Bose’s experiment, in 1995, when physicists Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman managed to cool rubidium-87 atoms to millionths of a degree above absolute zero – yes, it’s a temperature we can’t even imagine.
Can this fifth state of matter impact our daily lives?
Even though every scientific novelty catches our attention, since they are impressive revelations, we always wonder how they can (or will) affect our daily lives. Well, the fifth state of matter will not directly affect the lives of ordinary citizens, but it will affect the lives of specialists, too.
This is because scientists have been studying and have realized that BECs pave the way for:
- Ultra-sensitive sensors, which can detect tiny variations in gravity, acceleration, and magnetic fields
- Advanced quantum technologies, such as quantum computing and new forms of secure communication
- Even new materials.
We need to keep in mind that the mysteries of physics will never be completely solved and that there will always be new things out there, but what we cannot ignore are the predictions that Einstein made throughout his life. The last prediction he made was that of a strange force in the universe that can cause unexpected effects.
