Friday, October 10, 2003
Crystal Slows and Speeds Light
MIT Technology Review, Friday, Oct. 10, 2003
Who says the speed of light can't change? Researchers have shown that it is possible to both slow and speed light as it travels through a certain type of crystal--a result that could be useful for communications, computing, and data storage. [Topics: Computers and Electronics, Optics and Photonics]
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_100803.asp
This is more than a little interesting. Increasing the speed of light??? Maybe the world hasn't gotten hold of this, yet, but it should have crowds screaming in the streets. After all, if ONE of the "physical constants" can be changed, then it throws every other "constant" into quote marks. Chaos is loose in the world. Just like Waldo in the Heinlein story, who finds out that "Nothing is certain!".
On a little more practical note, this has major implications for anything that moves digital data over fiber optic lines. That's a mighty LONG list, these days. Anything that can make light go faster...
Who says the speed of light can't change? Researchers have shown that it is possible to both slow and speed light as it travels through a certain type of crystal--a result that could be useful for communications, computing, and data storage. [Topics: Computers and Electronics, Optics and Photonics]
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_100803.asp
This is more than a little interesting. Increasing the speed of light??? Maybe the world hasn't gotten hold of this, yet, but it should have crowds screaming in the streets. After all, if ONE of the "physical constants" can be changed, then it throws every other "constant" into quote marks. Chaos is loose in the world. Just like Waldo in the Heinlein story, who finds out that "Nothing is certain!".
On a little more practical note, this has major implications for anything that moves digital data over fiber optic lines. That's a mighty LONG list, these days. Anything that can make light go faster...
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