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From 299,792,458 m/s to 0

Fun with science — physicists have just managed to (very briefly) stop light in its tracks!

The research differs from work published in 2001 that was hailed at the time as having brought light to standstill. In that work, light pulses were technically “stored” briefly when individual particles of light, or photons, were taken up by atoms in a gas.

Harvard University researchers have now topped that feat by truly holding light and its energy in its tracks - if only for a few hundred-thousandths of a second. “We have succeeded in holding a light pulse still without taking all the energy away from it,” said Mikhail D. Lukin, a Harvard physicist.

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Posted in Science. See also: Why I don’t give my phone number to people who fry anymore. | Conventions…or the lack thereof | Blacker than black | Secession | This doesn’t inspire confidence .

By Michael Hanscom
December 10, 2003

One Response

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  1. Blogman said
    on December 12, 2003

    I’ve been able to do that for years with the flick of a switch. Geeze.

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