To get high data transfer rates in communicating information, you would love to use optical fibers. The problem is that light is extremely hard to manipulate. So we make a perfect copy of the information carried by the light. We transfer it to matter - the condensate.

Incidentally, think about the ramifications of storing data on light waves that can be stopped and started at the speed of light.

Physics is about questioning, studying, probing nature. You probe, and, if you're lucky, you get strange clues.

There's a tremendous amount of work building the apparatus, getting the experiment to work. But sitting there late at night in the lab, and knowing light is going at bicycle speed, and that nobody in the history of mankind has ever been here before - that is mind-boggling. It's worth everything.

One problem I have with drug companies is that they don't make all their data public.

In a perfect world we would bring corporate tax rates down to 25% or less so we can get competitive in the world economy. Ultimately, I would love to see a flat tax.