Spinning a frictionless liquid with light

A superfluid is a strange liquid that flows with no friction at all. It is hard to study because it behaves unlike anything we know. Physicists built a new tool called an optical centrifuge. It uses light to spin single molecules inside the superfluid for the first time. Watching those spins can reveal how the frictionless flow finally breaks down. The work opens a window into one of the odd corners of quantum physics. It is basic research, the kind that slowly reshapes what we understand.

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