[FUBAR-BDHR]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/us/new-lightsaber-molecule/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Looks like light matter is not longer theoretical......

[FreeSpaceFreak]

So basically, the MIT created... Hard Light?

[Herra Tohtori]

da wuq

will comment later if I understand anything about it, however first impression is that this is a science related news published by major news agency rather than scientific publication -> reliability can be anywhere between 0 and 1

[An4ximandros]

So basically, the MIT created... Hard Light?

[BloodEagle]

I thought Lightsabers were contained streams of plasma....

[IronBeer]

fut

da wuq

Will wait for Herra's assessment, but at first blush this is some crazy stuff.

[Herra Tohtori]

Well, I'll just say this - if they really managed to get actual photons to interact with each other to form molecule-like structures (and we're talking about bosons here, not fermions) that's really rather... interesting. You know, all that stuff with fermions being characterized by Fermi-Dirac statistics and bosons following the Bose-Einstein statistic, fermions having half-spins and bosons having integer spins, little things like that.

Photons in general always move in vacuum at speed of light and that really precludes them from actually interacting with each other or anything else except the space-time that they travel though. Physical characteristics of different media can "slow down" light if you're handling it as EM radiation - in which case it still doesn't affect the speeds of individual photons but rather the collective velocity of the wave front.

I'm not really sure how literally I should be taking this article; I'm pretty sure the whole thing is more about some crazy weird interference of light traveling in a media where it's velocity is very slow, rather than individual photons forming any kind of "bonds" with each other. It's still interesting but I can't really take it on face value until I read something that actually makes sense.

[Dragon]

Well, from what I've gathered from the article, they've gotten an immensely interesting quantum effect of some sort in a Bose-Einstein condensate. I'd like to see a more scientific publication on that matter, this obviously is a breakthrough, but the article oversimplifies it so much it hurts. Perhaps I should finally subscribe to "Nature". I don't think it's the same "slowdown" effect that gives us Cherenkov radiation (though it's probably related), rather, it's something completely new, and quite intriguing.

[watsisname]

Original paper

Interesting stuff, albeit beyond my comprehension.  Sounds less like 'molecules of light' and more like the photons are only behaving as if they are bonded due to the way they are interacting with the atoms in the medium.

[Dragon]

Well, that's quite impressive. Shame "Nature" only allows limited access and charges 200$ for subscription (which, unfortunately, is a lot around here). I'm tempted to purchase just this particular article, though perhaps I could access it through my university's library. This indeed is an important breakthrough, but rather than lightsabers, this seems more connected with quantum teleportation research and quantum computing. This is a completely new form of matter/energy (well, there's hardly a difference in such conditions) and certainly really interesting.

[Beskargam]

erm, should I go get this and uh, certainly not post it, but

[S-99]

Slowing down photons and they started to behave like matter bumping into atoms, even photons bonding to each other to form molecules. Reminds me more of replicators and transporters than light sabers.

[yuezhi]

Another Step? Don't tell me SFX in Hollywood counts as the first.

[deathfun]

Another Step? Don't tell me SFX in Hollywood counts as the first.

Hey, take a look at Star Trek
They were the first to bring up the concept and idea of some pretty nifty things before they were actually possible

People probably wouldn't of thought about those ideas if it weren't for them

So yeah
Coming up with the idea of something is the first step

[BloodEagle]

Another Step? Don't tell me SFX in Hollywood counts as the first.

Hey, take a look at Star Trek
They were the first to bring up the concept and idea of some pretty nifty things before they were actually possible

People probably wouldn't of thought about those ideas if it weren't for them thinking of those ideas.

I know what you're trying to say, but I just couldn't resist. 

[deathfun]

Another Step? Don't tell me SFX in Hollywood counts as the first.

Hey, take a look at Star Trek
They were the first to bring up the concept and idea of some pretty nifty things before they were actually possible

People probably wouldn't of thought about those ideas if it weren't for them thinking of those ideas.

I know what you're trying to say, but I just couldn't resist. 

Oh hey you bolded it!

[Luis Dias]

Why would anyone build a lightsaber is still a mystery to me (other than rule of cool).

[BloodEagle]

To win the most awesome Darwin Award, ever. 

[S-99]

To win the most awesome Darwin Award, ever. 

You know someone's going to get the saber mini and achieve death when attempting to shave off neckbeard and gonad hair for bikini season.

[jr2]

Lightsaber would be invaluable in its capacity of cutting through pretty much anything. Using it as a sword...  Why? Projectile weapons are easier and more efficient. If you want close up,  silent assassination, use a regular blade, so the darn hum of the Lightsaber won't give you away.