It's no science fiction anymore: clumping photons into molecules, scientists have discovered a completely new form of matter that works just like the lightsabers in Star Wars. "The physics of what's happening is similar to what we see in the movies," said one of the researchers.
Don't expect actual lightsabers in your nearer Wal-Mart anytime soon, though. We're still far from that point. But at least we have a start.
The latest science news out of Harvard and MIT sounds like a joke, but it's not. A team of physicists were fooling around with photons when they managed to get the particles to clump together to form a molecule, one that's unlike any other matter. And it behaves, they say, just like a lightsaber.
The latest science news out of Harvard and MIT sounds like a joke, but it's not. A team of physicists were fooling around with photons when they managed to get the particles to clump together to form a molecule, one that's unlike any other matter. And it behaves, they say, just like a lightsaber.
That's right. Lasers were used to discover a new form of matter that's straight out of a Star Wars film. Credit for the experiment goes to Harvard physics professor Mikhail Lukin and MIT physics professor Vladan Vuletic, who blasted photons through a cloud of rubidium atoms. When they sent more than one photon at once, they noticed that the particles clung to each other to form a molecule.
"It's not an in-apt analogy to compare this to lightsabers," said Lukin (Skywalker?) in a press release. "When these photons interact with each other, they're pushing against and deflect each other. The physics of what's happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies."
In fact, what the scientists were witnessing is known as the Rydberg blockade. This rule states that atoms neighboring an atom that's been excited—say, by a passing photon—cannot be excited to the same degree as the initial atom. When multiple photons pass through a cloud of atoms, this creates a push-pull force between them, which is what binds the resultant molecule.
Don't let your imagination get too carried away, though. The physicists aren't planning to build futuristic weapons with the new form of matter. Rather they hope it will help them make progress in building efficient quantum computers. Which frankly are futuristic enough in their own right. (Nature via PhysOrg
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Obviously lightsabers- if even faesible at all- are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off, but how will they make sure two blades repel each other? It would make for some pretty short fights if the two blades just pass straight through each other...
Yeah, I've always taken the subtext of the Birther movement to be, "The rules don't count here! This is different! HE'S BLACK! BLACK, I SAY! ARE YOU ALL BLIND!?
- Raw Shark
Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent.
"Molecule" is a metaphor here- these things wouldn't hang together in a vacuum; they seem to be existing by virtue of the "crowd behavior" of photons passing through matter.
Somehow I doubt this will lead to 'hard light' technology of any kind, but it's at least an interesting bit of trivia.
SO it's not actually 'hard light' in way or form.. It is light that is basically getting 'clogged' as it passes through other mater, but it is still Moving right? It's not being 'Frozen' in some magical way?
Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
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It wouldn't be the first time Gawker and similar Blogs/Tech News sites have exaggerated a discovery to create appeal among sci-fi fans who would otherwise pass over the article without clicking. My rule of thumb is that if the sci-fi analogy is to Star Wars or Star Trek technology, that will be the case 9 times out of 10 simply because those franchises are both highly familiar to the general public, and their technology is pretty much bogus.
"Still, I would love to see human beings, and their constituent organ systems, trivialized and commercialized to the same extent as damn iPods and other crappy consumer products. It would be absolutely horrific, yet so wonderful." —Shroom Man 777 "To Err is Human; to Arrr is Pirate." — Skallagrim
“I would suggest "Schmuckulating", which is what Futurists do and, by extension, what they are." — Commenter "Rayneau"
In other words, we won't be able to make hard light cookies and eat light. Dam.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.
You win. There, I have said it.
Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
Formless wrote:It wouldn't be the first time Gawker and similar Blogs/Tech News sites have exaggerated a discovery to create appeal among sci-fi fans who would otherwise pass over the article without clicking. My rule of thumb is that if the sci-fi analogy is to Star Wars or Star Trek technology, that will be the case 9 times out of 10 simply because those franchises are both highly familiar to the general public, and their technology is pretty much bogus.
Probably why no one else has posted about it then.
Balls to the sci fi references; the money quote is the last line there.
they hope it will help them make progress in building efficient quantum computers.
What this seems to do is that we (the human, collective we) have finally found a method of actually and reasonably efficiently creating entangled pairs of photons. This makes manufacturing quibits much easier, it means we have enough raw material to actually do experiments in the field of spooky action at a distance. This is a major leap forward disguised as meaningless nonsense. Hard light, no, NP problems and ansibles maybe.
