27 September 2013

‘Real-Life Lightsabers’ Created by Harvard-MIT Researchers

I've officially got my geek on.

Lightsabers may have been proven real by a joint Harvard-MIT research program.

Prof. Mikhail Lukin from Harvard University and Prof. Vladan Vuletic from MIT worked together in creating a new state of matter showing a very close similarity to the lightsaber Anakin Skywalker used to defend himself in Star Wars.

According to the research, the research team has “managed to coax photons into binding together to form molecules,” thus creating ‘photonic molecules.’

Lukin said in a press release, “Most of the properties of light we know about originate from the fact that photons are massless, and that they do not interact with each other. What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind together to form molecules. This type of photonic bound state has been discussed theoretically for quite a while, but until now it hadn't been observed."

He added, "It's not an in-apt analogy to compare this to light sabers. 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."

2 comments:

Guffaw in AZ said...

For science it's fine. But, as weaponry?
Isn't it similar to developing cellular telephones to type on them?
:-)

gfa

Rev. Paul said...

Please, Guffaw. It's not as clumsy or as random as a blaster, but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. :)