Harvard Physicists Make Light Dance

tetrikphimvin and others clued us to the latest work by Harvard's Lene Vestergaard Hau, being published today in the journal Nature. The NYTimes has a good layman's overview of how Hau's team encoded a light beam in a clump of atoms and later reconstituted it elsewhere. The Harvard Gazette offers additional details, a photo, and video links.

Comments

Dancing lights

[robinsonne]

Ok, but next time I lead...

One Bad Joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Harvard Physicists Make Light Dance

Then they slowly loaded their six shooters while chewing on a half burnt cigar and make it dance again. They then told light to leave town or it would be pushing up roses. The Harvard townspeople danced joyously and there was much rejoicing.

DDR Lights...

[__aaclcg7560]

Stop playing Dance Dance Revolution and get back to work! There's nothing in the research contract about getting physical on the job!

Meanwhile

[roguegramma]

Meanwhile, in Russia, light makes physicists dance.

acid

[chia_monkey]

It's called acid maaaaaan. The lights were dancing, the reds tasted soooo good. Purple had a funky smell to it though...

Re:So, if you walk next to stopped light...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

If you say "IANAP" in your post it gives you a license to say whatever you like about physics. Here's an example:

IANAP but I think that when virtual particles interact in a magnetic field then in the frame of reference of a photon the wavefunction collapse allows faster than light communication except when in violation of the second law of thermodynamics.