Scientists Create New "Lightsaber-Like" Form of Matter 175
First time accepted submitter loftarasa writes "A group of scientists led by Harvard Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin and MIT Professor of Physics Vladan Vuletic have developed a form of matter by binding massless photons together in a special kind of medium to create 'photonic molecules', effectively bringing us a bit closer to a world with lightsabers. 'The discovery, Lukin said, runs contrary to decades of accepted wisdom about the nature of light. Photons have long been described as massless particles which don't interact with each other – shine two laser beams at each other, he said, and they simply pass through one another. "Photonic molecules," however, behave less like traditional lasers and more like something you might find in science fiction – the light saber.' The work is described in Nature (paywalled)."
Dear University PR Heads: (Score:5, Insightful)
That is all.
Light Saber? (Score:5, Insightful)
Lightsaber! (Score:4, Insightful)
The journalist could not say their finding will cure cancer or obesity in several decades, therefore they sold it as a potential path to lightsabers!
We would probably not accept such bold tactics from politicians, why do we accept it from scientific journalists?
Re:Cue the comedy (Score:4, Insightful)
Science?? Not everyone has a paid subscription to Nature. Without that there is hardly anything to miss!
Re:massless photons vs black hole (Score:3, Insightful)
becasue the curved area of space is bent so far that it never comes out the other side.
Black holes are where the universe divided by zero.
Re:Unfortunately, you need real molecules to do th (Score:4, Insightful)
Calling it a form of matter is a bit of a stretch as is imagining that an advanced form of it could ever be lightsaber like. Unless all saber fights will take place in a rarefied environment consisting of super cold rubidium.