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.

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.

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.