Peter Steinberg, of Brookhaven Lab, mulls over a new announcement that MIT physicists have created a new form of matter out of cold atoms. It's similar to the "perfect liquid" that scientists recently made in Brookhaven's particle accelerator. "Don't they have enough Nobel Prizes already?" writes Peter.

Gordon Watts offers advice on computing to members of a rival experiment who want to upgrade their system. The competition is serious but collegial. "Showing off the system was a lot of fun," he writes.

Reports from the Road
Upon her return from a workshop in Vancouver, Ursula Bassler reflects on the city's views, shops, and, of course, weather. "I liked Vancouver; life looks human in this place," she writes.

Before Rob Gardner's late-night computing sessions, he often wanders the less-traveled roads of Chicago in his car. In this post, he takes readers on a tour to the neighborhoods where visitors rarely go, and many Chicagoans avoid. "At this point, you might be thinking what kind of fool drives the mean streets at these hours. I don't know," Rob writes. "I do know that plenty of kids call these places home, and there are families there that regularly protest the city's demolition plans."

Gordon Watts lands a press pass to go to WIRED NextFest in Chicago, an expo of "cool futuristic technology." "NASA had a cool robot display -- a crab that walks under water to sweep for mines. It is powered by mu-metal, which expands and contracts depending on its temperature," he writes.