Bose-Einstein Condensate Made at Room Temperature for First Time

[R]esearchers at IBM’s Binnig and Rohrer Nano Center have been able to achieve the BEC at room temperature using a specially developed polymer, a laser, and some mirrors.

Sounds vaguely McGuyver-ish. I’m sure duct tape was involved somewhere. Duct tape is always involved.

Anyway, I’m not sure how this is useful yet, given that the BEC only lasts for a few picoseconds. Atom laser and optical switch sound like boiler-plate responses. (Similar to how other atomic physics efforts are hyped to be great for making new types of atomic clocks, but that rarely ends up happening) I would be interested in knowing how they determined that they had a BEC in the first place.