Scientists have been chasing silicon-based lasers for years—they’d provide a faster, cheaper way to move data across or between computer chips. Now researchers say they’ve gotten efficient light emission from silicon by forcing it into a new shape. Replacing copper wires with beams of light makes it possible to send data from one transistor on a chip to another, or from one chip to another, at higher speeds and with less power, without having to worry about the excess heat generated by electrical resistance. Other types of lasers can do that, but the semiconductors they’re made of are more expensive...