The realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute atomic gases has created a unique experimental platform to study materials in a new regime. The low density (a million times lower than air) of the gas allows control over the atoms and their interactions using the tools and precision of atomic physics. For atoms in a deep optical lattice, the motional degree is frozen out and control of the spin degree of freedom has emerged as a new frontier.  I will report on recent results on spin transport which highlights the crucial role of the anisotropy in the paradigmatic Heisenberg Hamiltonian. Highly magnetic lanthanide atoms offer the possibility to study many-body physics with strong magnetic interactions. Using a new optical superresolution technique, we could localize dysprosium atoms with a separation much smaller than the diffraction limit of light, down to 50 nm, boosting magnetic dipole interaction by a factor of 1,000. These studies illustrate a new approach to condensed-matter physics where many-body phenomena are realized in dilute atomic gases