Slow Light = Fast Computing

yohaas writes "The Washington Post is reporting that scientists have been able to slow the speed of light while still maintaining its ability to transmit information. The researchers have even developed a way to 'tune' the process, modulating how fast or slow the light goes within controlled circumstances. From the article: 'Scientists said yesterday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store an image. Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light.'"

Comments

Ahem.

[Hawthorne01]

We don't say "slow light" anymore. We say "Luminescentally Challenged".

Re:Ahem.

[Quaoar]

How retarded.

Future performance whores will brag...

[Anonymous Coward]

...in terms of how small their underclock of c is.

for all it's spark

[mackkie]

worst pun ever

reflection

[aevans]

using light to store an image is called reflection. We've been doing it for years.

Re:Hothouse?

[A beautiful mind]

So it turns out that a slashdot title is a gross oversimplification/mischaracterization of an issue? Say it ain't so!

Meanwhile, scientists at..

[LM741N]

UC Santa Cruz have achieved a 1/1000 slowdown of light by passing a beam through a cloud of marijuana smoke.

That's not a pun, THIS is a pun!

[spun]

worst pun ever Boy, that sounded like a challenge.

Light, for all its flare, can't hold a candle to electricity's current ability to generate a buzz around computing!

Worst pun ever? Pfha! We have not yet begun to pun!

Call me when they slow down darkness.

[bad_fx]

"No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

Re:Call me when they slow down darkness.

[The Darkness]

"No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." Goldstaff, Sorcerer of Light, I will have my vengeance!

Re:Wrong Way

[geekoid]

but nobody would ever see you win!

Re:Fuck you

[Anonymous Coward]

Rest assured we will. :)

Re:The future is now! (tm)

[Atzanteol]

And when the future does indeed arrive, will it not then be simply 'the present'?

Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at?!
Colonel Sandurz: Now. You're looking at now, sir. Everything that is happening now is happening now.
DH: What happened to then?
CS: We passed it.
DH: When?
CS: Just now. We're at now now.
DH: Go back to then!
CS: When?
DH: Now!
CS: Now?
DH: Now!
CS: We can't!
DH: Why?
CS: We missed it.
DH: When?
CS: Just now.
DH: When will then be now?
CS: Soon.

Re:Moo

[shis-ka-bob]

To strengthen this arguement, the product of the phase velocity and the group velocity is the speed of light squared. Or alteratively, the speed of light is the geometric mean of the phase velocity and the group velocity. So passing the light through Cesium must speed up the phase velocity by the same ratio that it speeds up the group velocity.

Somewhat off topic... The last page of Physical Review is accelerating down the book shelf at a rate limited by the ability of the physics community to publish papers. At the current acceleration, the last page will exceed the speed of light in about 85 years. As no information will be transferred in this process, this is not a violation of relativity. It is unfortunate that only the on-line version of Physical Review is likey to survived 85 years, since it would have been an interesting change if Physical Review was actually the subject of at least one experiment.

Re:Oh no!

[drawfour]

No, but if you eat enough fast food, that could happen...