> So in 2018, an international team of scientists created a BEC out of strontium atoms, and hit one of those atoms with a carefully tuned laser, exciting its outermost electron and turning it into a Rydberg atom. Several other atoms from the BEC were caught within between that outer electron’s inflated orbital.

This is not so much putting 170 atoms in one, but inflating one beyond the size of its 170-atom neighbourhood.

The hard part being to cool the neighbourhood to such an extremely low temperature that the inflated atom doesn't ionize.

The article, rather shallow, is about Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC).

I found it a bit more interesting that the author's middle name is Galileo, and that he is participating in a "blogging" residency [0]:

Inkhaven residency: A 30 day residency for you to grow as a writer. For one month, you'll publish a blogpost every day. Or pack your bags.

[0]: https://www.inkhaven.blog/

As someone who did blue sky chemistry research decades ago: is this completely pointless?