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- Even for scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding gravity, the force’s relentless downward pull is sometimes a drag. Consider, for instance, the researchers who study Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) as precise probes of fundamental physics. BECs emerge when a dilute gas of atoms is cooled close to absolute zero and begins behaving as a single, strange chunk of quantum matter—similar to how wriggling water molecules transform into a block of ice once they are chilled. These odd assemblages magnify otherwise hidden quantum-mechanical effects such as the wavelike nature of matter, making them visible at macroscales. Yet sometimes gravity’s pernicious influence can get in the way.