The observation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate was a long-standing goal in ultracold atom research. Even more important, this work is opening up the possibility to study a high-temperature fermionic superfluid in an ultracold atomic gas.

It was a new discovery, but also included new methods for creating and observing condensates of pairs of fermionic atoms, which is now used in many labs around the world.

Bose-Einstein condensates of atoms have been studied for nearly 10 years. These systems are fascinating macroscopic quantum objects and allow us to study fundamental questions of modern many-body physics. With recent experiments, it has become possible to study condensates of molecules and also condensates of fermions. Fermions can only condense if they form pairs, a lot like electrons in a superconductor. Therefore this research creates a link between condensed matter physics and atomic physics, and people believe that this link will be extremely fruitful in the future.

The experiment was developed over a period of more than six years by Deborah Jin and coworkers at the University of Colorado. I joined the group one and a half years ago after studying ultracold atoms in optical lattices in Munich as a member of the group of Professor Ted Haensch at Ludwig-Maximilians-University.