Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Scientists stop light for 60 seconds


Saru

Recommended Posts

A team of researchers has succeeded in finding a way to stop light in its tracks for a full minute.

To break the minute barrier, George Heinze and colleagues at the University of Darmstadt, Germany, fired a control laser at an opaque crystal, sending its atoms into a quantum superposition of two states.

arrow3.gifRead more...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Don't quote me on this, but at the infamous Area 51, they [apparently] already tried and succeeded in building a lightsaber like device but found no use for it. But is it true? I dunno!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What does it tell us and how can we use it?

The question: obvious to everyone

The answer: apparently beyond you. What we can use this for is beyond the dreams of the majority of the masses. What if I said it could give us warp travel, or unlimited energy in 50 years' time? Would you start educating yourself so you could contribute to the works so we could have those things sooner? If the answer is 'no way, I just want to enjoy the results for free', then why bother asking the question? Plain curiosity, which, once answered, is satisfied, the interest subsided, the will to contribute, if ever existed, lost completely, the whole matter settled in your ever-want-to-be-busy mind, which simply says: "next"? Or what?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't quote me on this, but at the infamous Area 51, they [apparently] already tried and succeeded in building a lightsaber like device but found no use for it. But is it true? I dunno!

Well, I'd find a use or two for it

The question: obvious to everyone

The answer: apparently beyond you. What we can use this for is beyond the dreams of the majority of the masses. What if I said it could give us warp travel, or unlimited energy in 50 years' time? Would you start educating yourself so you could contribute to the works so we could have those things sooner? If the answer is 'no way, I just want to enjoy the results for free', then why bother asking the question? Plain curiosity, which, once answered, is satisfied, the interest subsided, the will to contribute, if ever existed, lost completely, the whole matter settled in your ever-want-to-be-busy mind, which simply says: "next"? Or what?

Wow, did you wake up with the wrong foot today?

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The question: obvious to everyone

The answer: apparently beyond you. What we can use this for is beyond the dreams of the majority of the masses. What if I said it could give us warp travel, or unlimited energy in 50 years' time? Would you start educating yourself so you could contribute to the works so we could have those things sooner? If the answer is 'no way, I just want to enjoy the results for free', then why bother asking the question? Plain curiosity, which, once answered, is satisfied, the interest subsided, the will to contribute, if ever existed, lost completely, the whole matter settled in your ever-want-to-be-busy mind, which simply says: "next"? Or what?

So you , same as I, dont have clue?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting to be sure, but it takes a lot of energy to capture the light (LASERS, magnetic fields). Unless they find a very exotic use for the technology, the cost may outweigh the benefit, at least presently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The question: obvious to everyone

The answer: apparently beyond you. What we can use this for is beyond the dreams of the majority of the masses. What if I said it could give us warp travel, or unlimited energy in 50 years' time? Would you start educating yourself so you could contribute to the works so we could have those things sooner? If the answer is 'no way, I just want to enjoy the results for free', then why bother asking the question? Plain curiosity, which, once answered, is satisfied, the interest subsided, the will to contribute, if ever existed, lost completely, the whole matter settled in your ever-want-to-be-busy mind, which simply says: "next"? Or what?

Sorry to burst whatever condescending bubble you're in, but you are way out-of-line.

There was NOTHING wrong with his(the L) comment, but a whole lot with your's.

Edited by pallidin
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All that time and money when I stopped light myself by flicking the switch to off

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why are there never videos of these astonishing feats?????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light in a room".

I mean, how can you read the inside of an opaque crystal? How can you "see" past the outside to know there is still light in there? Wouldn't light leave just as fast as you turning off the control laser? I mean obviously you can't get more light in once the control is off..

Looks like they are't really stopping it, just slowing it to the point of it taking a minute to leave the crystal. That is pretty sweet.

Slo-mo for real.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All that time and money when I stopped light myself by flicking the switch to off

Or aiming a flashlight at walls. :w00t:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why are there never videos of these astonishing feats?????

Too many videos already; we have learned to disregard them as they are too easy to fake.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A proper light saber would be of little use beyond that of a flashlight. A gun is more effective if you want to take them out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A proper light saber would be of little use beyond that of a flashlight. A gun is more effective if you want to take them out.

Are you serious? You can weld, cut, etc. metal, deflect laser beams of death, heat things up, light a cigarette. Just think, when you get into a divorce and the wife wants half of everything...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So they trapped light inside an opaque crystal? How is this different then turning a light on in a room with no windows and saying "I trapped light in a room".

I mean, how can you read the inside of an opaque crystal? How can you "see" past the outside to know there is still light in there? Wouldn't light leave just as fast as you turning off the control laser? I mean obviously you can't get more light in once the control is off..

Looks like they are't really stopping it, just slowing it to the point of it taking a minute to leave the crystal. That is pretty sweet.

They shine an image (in their paper the image was three horizontal bars; a free-to-read copy is available on one of the authors' website) through a crystal (the image is projected right through onto a screen on the other side), they turn the system ``off'' and the image stops coming through the crystal, they turn off the light source for the image, then they turn the system back ``on'' and the image pops up (briefly) on the screen.

The length of time the image is stored depends on when they turn the system back ``on'', the quality of the image degrades over time but they show in Fig. 4 of their paper what it looks like after 0.1 s, 1.0 s, 10.0 s, and 60.0 s of storage time.

So I think their description of ``stopped light'' is accurate. If the light were just travelling slowly, the image should pop out regardless of whether the system was turned back ``on'', and always after the same amount of time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is nothing there. I can do all those things in a machine shop now at a lot less cost.

I don't think that is what the technology is about anyway. Uses for stopped light have to do with storage of information or encoding things maybe but ot creaiting a focused beam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends on how they slowed the light. What is actually happening. an opaque crystal? It really just sounds like the energy is being absorbed then re emitted. Many internal process could be the culprit. It could be said that one 'slowed' light if there was a complex set of perfect zig zaggy mirrors that increased the distance light had to travel to make it somewhere. If I set the mirrors (probably using fractal geometry) to equal roughly 186,000 miles in 30 feet. Light would 'travel' 30 feet per second relative to me. Im skeptical until I understand what's really happening inside of the crystals and the medium being applied. Waves and even light are always described with a speed then a medium. Sound travels a certain speed in air, and another in water. It doesn't travel in a vacuum. If I remember correctly our description of the speed of light is in a vacuum. It is very slightly different in other mediums.

All statements like this tell me is that they have found mediums that transfer light much differently than a vacuum. I could be wrong though, I don't know the details of the experiments and Im not a physicist. But I am very skilled at marketing. It sounds like a way to guarantee funding to me. ;)

On a side note. If this process is ACTUALLY slowing light in stead of absorption and remittance I think there probably is a way to send messages back in time. That would be really cool if not paradoxal.

edit: Again I don't know the details of the experiments, but I can also imagine an opaque crystal acting as a filter. Only very little light could be let through. So little in fact that it might take a minute for the first photon to find its way through. This might be spun as "slowing" light. In fact its not 'Slowing' light at all, but it sounds good for a thesis or grants.

Edited by White Crane Feather
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.