Out Of Pure Light, Physicists Create Particles Of Matter

Science Daily ^

[mnehring]

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 1997) — A team of 20 physicists from four institutions has literally made something from nothing, creating particles of matter from ordinary light for the first time. The experiment was carried out at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) by scientists and students from the University of Rochester, Princeton University, the University of Tennessee, and Stanford. The team reported the work in the Sept. 1 issue of Physical Review Letters.

Scientists have long been able to convert matter to energy; the most spectacular example is a nuclear explosion, where a small amount of matter creates tremendous energy. Now physicists have succeeded in doing the opposite: converting energy in the form of light into matter -- in this experiment, electrons and their anti-matter equivalent, positrons.

Converting energy into matter isn't completely new to physicists. When they smash together particles like protons and anti-protons in high-energy accelerator experiments, the initial particles are destroyed and release a fleeting burst of energy. Sometimes this energy burst contains very short-lived packets of light known as "virtual photons" which go on to form new particles. In this experiment scientists observed for the first time the creation of particles from real photons, packets of light that scientists can observe directly in the laboratory.

[rjsimmon]

A team of 20 physicists from four institutions has literally made something from nothing, creating particles of matter from ordinary light for the first time

A particle is still a particle. They created nothing, they simply reorganized it.

[ari-freedom]

A team of 20 physicists from four institutions has literally made something from nothing pure light

[CondorFlight]

So God made light first (”Fiat Lux!”, or, “Let there be light!”);

and then he made everything else...

[silverleaf]

Well, this is not a first. At least, not if you read and interpret matter forming after light was created by God (Book of Genesis)

But there was something out there before the light- there was “the Word” (Book of John), aka “information”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God “(John 1:1)

That “word” made the first matter to emerge from light... a bit more spectacular and purposeful than what man has created in a laboratory

[Frank_Discussion]

“That “word” made the first matter to emerge from light... a bit more spectacular and purposeful than what man has created in a laboratory.”

True enough! And I think that those of us made in His image have still done something extraordinary with this experiment.

[bert]

As Einstein taught us, E=mC2.

We know the what happened was that the light was slowed adequately to produce particles or matter.

[Sunsong]

Thanks for posting this. I wonder how long until they will admit the connection of thought to light to matter?

[mylife]

Sounds like Hokem to me.

As others have said. They did not start with “nothing”

[Juan Medén]

Let there be light, and there was light.

[Technical Editor]

Can someone please tell me the point of posting an article this old? Am I missing something?

[Kevmo]

bmflr

[ClearCase_guy]

[Yossarian]

Matter-to-Energy and Energy-to-Matter... Where could that lead us?

[HangnJudge]

Scientists long ago observed the production of particles from individual photons, or Pair Production

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_production

Pair production can only occur if the photon has an energy exceeding twice the rest mass(me) of an electron (1.022 MeV); the same applies for the generation of other higher energy leptons such as the muon and tau. These interactions were first observed in Patrick Blackett's counter-controlled bubble chamber, leading to the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics.

[MeanWestTexan]

This is cool.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

In this experiment scientists observed for the first time the creation of particles from real photons, packets of light that scientists can observe directly in the laboratory.

Okay, what's the spin on the story here?

[decimon]

Pffft! Every monitor I’ve owned has made dust.

[jerod]

After all the scientific experiments are completed, there is only one conclusion that can be deducted.

There is a Creator and his work is everywhere and it is everything, and all that is and all that is not, is the creators work.

We can push the atoms, rearrange the matter and twist the light, but we will never be Creators. There is only one... And he ain’t Barrack Obama.

He is The Creator
God; the Supreme Being

[mnehring]

Can someone please tell me the point of posting an article this old? Am I missing something?

Before posting, I looked forward in time, saw it would annoy you, so I posted it... Actually, just thought it was interesting.. so sue me..