If you want to really see quantum mechanics in action, you’ve got to turn the temperature down so low that even atoms stop moving. Physicists have come close to achieving this “absolute zero” state by using precision-tuned lasers, but the technique has only allowed researchers to freeze small groups of atoms at a time. Now members of an international team say they have managed to cool a dime-sized mirror to within one degree of absolute zero, the lowest laser-induced freeze yet achieved with a visible object.
One of the greatest enigmas in physics is how matter can be governed by the four basic forces of nature–electromagnetism, which governs light, heat and electricity; the strong and weak nuclear forces, which bind atoms together; and gravity–and still follow the rules of quantum mechanics, which operate only at the subatomic level. In other words, scientists want to know how solid objects keep from flying apart when their atoms are also influenced by the chaotic nature of quantum physics. The major research obstacle has been that natural forces overwhelm quantum effects. The only way to cancel those forces entirely is to cool an atom down to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius), where quantum forces apply exclusively.
Reflections of Absolute Zero — Berardelli 2007 (409): 1 — ScienceNOW