Originally posted by KazetNagorra
In this context "new state of matter" just means "we made something with unusual properties." In this case they claim to have created a supersolid, which combines a crystalline structure with frictionless flow of atoms within that structure. The latter is a well-known property of superfluids (e.g. liquid helium) while the former is ubiquitous in nature (e.g. a piece of ordinary iron).
I think what is new about this stuff is the ability to go into two separate forms of the crystal without expending energy, which sounds like a very good trick indeed. Sounds almost like perpetual motion which it is, the caveat is you cannot extract energy out of the system, at least for more than a femtosecond or so.....
