Scientist figure out how to make lightsabers. No, really.

[Contrabardus]

Scientists have created a new form of matter and it behaves like a lightsaber.

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-created-a-new-form-of-matter-and-its-like-a-1387420181

They currently say they won't be building actual lightsabers from it, but that it will be used for 'computers'.

Yeah, right. Huge nerds finally figure out how to build lightsabers and they're going to build a 'quantum computer' instead?

Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. We all know that the allure of an actual fucking lightsaber will be far too much for someone nerdy enough to be a scientist to resist and it will happen.

It's only a matter of time.

 

[daniel_gudman]

...The medium they created the effect in was a diffuse cloud of Rubidium atoms in a vacuum chamber, cooled to about three Kelvin. In that condition, they're causing photons to interfere with each other via Rydberg blockade slowly enough we can observe it happening.

It's not a new form of matter, it's a (really) cold gas.

It's lightsaber-like because of something like a wave interference effect, not because it's actually dangerous. It was just a throw-away metaphor one of the physicists used to talk to a science journalist.

 

[shinzero01]

...The medium they created the effect in was a diffuse cloud of Rubidium atoms in a vacuum chamber, cooled to about three Kelvin. In that condition, they're causing photons to interfere with each other via Rydberg blockade slowly enough we can observe it happening.

It's not a new form of matter, it's a (really) cold gas.

It's lightsaber-like because of something like a wave interference effect, not because it's actually dangerous. It was just a throw-away metaphor one of the physicists used to talk to a science journalist.

I dub thee "Hopekiller".
For bringing logic and science into something on the internet.

 

[daniel_gudman]

I dub thee "Hopekiller".
For bringing logic and science into something on the internet.

Dood

The actual story was, like, this:

"Hey you know that completely mind-bending wave/particle duality that's, like, the Great Mystery of Physics? Well we totally extended it by getting photons to exhibit mass-like behavior!"

It I was going to pick a rubber-science technology from "Star Wars" that this research would lead to, it wouldn't be lightsabers.

It would be artificial gravity. (Maybe hyperspace.)

The light-saber bit was by far the least interesting part of an article about scientists who are literally blurring the division between "matter" and "energy".

 

[whitewhiskey]

I dub thee "Hopekiller".
For bringing logic and science into something on the internet.

Dood

The actual story was, like, this:

"Hey you know that completely mind-bending wave/particle duality that's, like, the Great Mystery of Physics? Well we totally extended it by getting photons to exhibit mass-like behavior!"

It I was going to pick a rubber-science technology from "Star Wars" that this research would lead to, it wouldn't be lightsabers.

It would be artificial gravity. (Maybe hyperspace.)

The light-saber bit was by far the least interesting part of an article about scientists who are literally blurring the division between "matter" and "energy".

Well, not quite hyper space, but Warp Speed may be closing in, using the actual Star Trek explanation of Warp Bubbles!

Check It!

 

[rdde]

It would be artificial gravity.

That is much more eye-catching indeed.

Light sabers are not as useful or as dangerous as artificial gravity that can go from 0g to 20g.

Well, not quite hyper space, but Warp Speed may be closing in, using the actual Star Trek explanation of Warp Bubbles!

Check It!

It's great to hear of an optimistic update on the warp drive.

 

[Ordo]

I dub thee "Hopekiller".
For bringing logic and science into something on the internet.

Dood

The actual story was, like, this:

"Hey you know that completely mind-bending wave/particle duality that's, like, the Great Mystery of Physics? Well we totally extended it by getting photons to exhibit mass-like behavior!"

It I was going to pick a rubber-science technology from "Star Wars" that this research would lead to, it wouldn't be lightsabers.

It would be artificial gravity. (Maybe hyperspace.)

The light-saber bit was by far the least interesting part of an article about scientists who are literally blurring the division between "matter" and "energy".

Well, not quite hyper space, but Warp Speed may be closing in, using the actual Star Trek explanation of Warp Bubbles!

Check It!

I want them all, Warp drive, artificial gravity and Lightsabers.