A year ago this month, physicists first created a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which a cloud of trapped atoms is cooled so close to absolute zero that their quantum-mechanical waves merge. But with barely 1000 atoms in a condensate that lasted just a few seconds, the researchers could do no more than say they'd done it. Now the field is being transformed by a new atom trap that can create condensates of 5 million sodium atoms that survive for half a minute and a new technique for imaging condensates without destroying them. Several research groups are now probing the size, growth rate, optical properties, and even the viscosity of this new form of matter.
S. N. Bose gave a new identity to the quanta of light, introduced into physics by Planck and Einstein, and derived Planck's formula for the radiation spectrum. Chance events led to Einstein's insightful use of Bose's result to build a quantum theory of atomic gases, with the remarkable prediction of a new type of condensation without interactions. Though the spectacular phenomena of superfluidity and superconductivity were identified as the consequences of Bose-Einstein Condensation, the phenomenon in its near pure form, as foresaw by Einstein, was observed 70 years later in atomic gases. The quest for atomic gas BEC was behind much of the developments of laser cooling and trapping of atoms. Since then, the atomic gas BEC has grown into a major research theme and versatile research tool all over the world. I outline the development that made BEC of laser cooled atoms the promised 'Swiss army knife' of laboratory physics, with mentions of some of the examples and applications. My involvement in this field of research at 'home and the world' is briefly reviewed.