A team of physicists at Harvard and MIT have made an exciting discovery, especially for Star Wars fans. During an experiment with photons and a cloud of rubidium atoms, they found that the photons would cling together when more than one photon was sent through at one time. The intent of this experiment was to building a quantum supercomputer and this was a side effect.
When the photons stick together, they created an unique molecules. The Rydberg Blockade is the principle which states that when an atom is excited, atoms nearby can’t be excited to the same degree. These new molecules respond in a similar method to Star Wars’ light sabers.
“It’s not an in-apt analogy to compare this to lightsabers,” said Professor Mikhail Lukin. “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.” (Yahoo Movies)
Here is to hoping that some day science will give use fully functional light sabers. I can image slicing the Thanksgiving Day Turkey with my new light saber.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
