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This may also be of interest, but it seems to have disappeared of the FreeRepublic, at least I can no longer find it on a search.
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010812 Harvard scientists say theyve stopped light
2001-08-12
8/12/01 12:57:56 PM
Harvard scientists say they've stopped light: Speed of light is zero
Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Keywords: SCIENCE?? OR JUNK.
Source: Boston Glob
Published: 1/18/2001 Author: Douglas Bailey
Posted on 01/18/2001 14:18:46 PST by rface
Two years ago, Harvard scientists stunned the world of physics when they said they slowed the speed of light to about 40 miles per hour. Now, they report they have brought light to a complete stop in an achievement that may pave the way for ultra-fast computers that are impervious to hackers.
In separate reports scheduled for release in two scientific journals later this month, the physicists - Dr. Ronald L. Walsworth and Dr. Mikhail D. Lukin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Dr. Lene Vestergaard Hau of Harvard University and the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge - say they have actually tamed light, holding it, then letting it go on command.
The ability to bring light, which normally travels at 186,000 miles per second, to a standstill is expected to precipitate major advances in quantam computing, which theoretically relies on the ability to harness and delay light. Such computers would be phenomenally faster than today's swiftest computer and their security could be guaranteed.
Walsworth and Lukin's paper is scheduled for publication in the Jan. 29 issue of Physical Review Letters. Hau will detail her findings in the the journal Nature.
This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 1/18/2001.
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Maybe this makes no sense because its from Harvard.
Ashland, Missouri
1 Posted on 01/18/2001 14:18:46 PST by rface (RFacemyer@msn.com)
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To: rface
If I'm understanding this correctly (and I misunderstand alot, believe me). This has the potential, as the article states, to open up the creation of quantum computing. Sort of like a light driven transistor. This could get around a number of problems/limitations with our electricity (electron) driven transistors. Of course all that might prove to be unworkable and it will be just a cool trick.
8 Posted on 01/18/2001 14:25:04 PST by Tis The Time''s Plague
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To: rface
If this is true, we can soon say goodbye to computing as we know it, and we will soon have computers more akin to what we would see on the starship Enterprise.
The great thing about photons, is that the current restrictions to computational speed, (heat, resistance, EMF)are history. If we can control a photon in the same way we do now with electrons, this is going to be a whole new world.
10 Posted on 01/18/2001 14:26:28 PST by innocentbystander
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Scientists at Scotch, Memorex, BASF and TDK say they've stopped sound: Speed of sound is zero.