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News and Views
Nature 451, 136-137 (10 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/451136a; Published online 9 January 2008
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Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Karolinska Institute
- Stockholm Sweden
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Physics: The force of fluctuations
Sébastien Balibar1
Abstract
Strange forces and effects dominate the world at the microscopic level. One such force, rooted in the random fluctuations of matter, has only now been accurately measured — 30 years after it was first predicted.
On page 172 of this issue, Hertlein et al.1 present the first direct evidence for a force, known as the 'critical Casimir force', that is caused by the continual fluctuations of matter. The discovery is not a surprise: Michael Fisher and Pierre-Gilles de Gennes had predicted2 the existence of the force in 1978, and indirect evidence for it had already been found3, 4, 5.
- Sébastien Balibar is at the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris, France.
Email: balibar@lps.ens.fr
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