Ming the Mechanic:
Slow Light

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Slow Light2003-10-17 10:55
6 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

Researchers have shown than they can slow down light to a stand still, and even store its properties in atoms and then reconstitute the light later. And now other researchers have found that they can manufacture crystal that either slow down or speed up light.

It all reminds me of a science fiction story I read once where somebody had manufactured "slow glass". It would take something like 20 years for light to pass through a pane of glass like that. So, you would buy glass panes that had been standing around on the African savannah or in the Himalayas or something for years, and put them as windows in your house. And then, for years, you could look out at exotic wildlife walking about outside or breathtaking mountain views.


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6 comments

17 Oct 2003 @ 11:02 by scotty : what a shame
that the windows was only science fiction - what a great idea !!  


18 Oct 2003 @ 16:47 by bri_outten : Excellent
I wonder if this is true.
If so marvellous!
Although unlikely as I gather that light, even in the densest of materials, only slows light down marginally, although enough for it to refract!  



21 Oct 2003 @ 09:15 by ming : Light of Other Days
Ah, great, yes, that's the one! Thanks.  


20 Dec 2014 @ 02:32 by Rachael @46.18.192.65 : TcwMTddozJUjU
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23 Dec 2014 @ 19:46 by Este @186.89.191.45 : DfBhTkBHgVFEeMdH
Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear. She paceld the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!  


16 Nov 2016 @ 01:59 by Profits Eternity Review @197.210.172.56 : Binary
Insightful  


Other stories in
2009-11-01 16:35: Seven questions that keep physicists up at night
2008-10-14 20:33: Where are the podcars?
2008-07-05 00:08: Self-Organized Criticality
2008-05-16 13:34: The Universe as God
2008-01-11 19:00: Richard Dawkins comes to call
2007-12-02 21:10: An E8 theory of everything
2007-09-27 00:46: Parallel universes are a bit more real
2007-07-05 23:40: What happened before the big bang
2007-06-27 00:58: Naïve realism
2007-05-26 02:26: Mars cave



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