How to Make an Atom Laser: 1) Place a few grams of rubidium inside a vacuum chamber pierced by six diode lasers. Rubidium atoms rise off the sample, and the light-pressure of the laser beams slows the atoms.

2) As the atoms slow down, their effective temperature drops to about one-10 000th of a Kelvin. The intersecting beams trap the atoms to keep them away from the chamber's room-temperature walls. Next, turn off the lasers while maintaining the confinement of the atoms in a magnetic field.

3) As the atoms bang together, some leave the trap, carrying energy out of the system and cooling it further. The remaining atoms undergo a phase transition, creating a Bose-Einstein condensate, consisting of up to 10 million atoms.

4)Finally, turn off the magnetic trap. The ultracold condensate that falls out behaves like a wave—it can be reflected, refracted, phase-shifted, and focused. The condensate then moves through a waveguide formed by laser light, making room for a second batch of superatoms to form in the vacuum chamber.