Scientists are able to use laser beams to slow down the movement of the atoms in a material, causing its temperature to drop. When the temperature goes down almost to absolute zero, the individual atoms can condense together into a new state of matter with quantum properties that behaves almost like a single giant atom. Renowned physicists Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose were the first to predict its existence, hence it was named after them and is now called a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC).

BECs can be observed and studied using special cameras. However, Dr. Cosme’s team was able to use lasers to further manipulate them so that they can’t be observed using these standard methods. “By shaking BECs in the right way, we can cause them to become quantum objects that don’t absorb, reflect, nor emit light—hence, ‘dark,’” he explained.