Apparently scientists have found a way create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they act as though they have mass, and bind together to form molecules. More information in the link. Star Wars lightsabers finally invented | Film | theguardian.com
Fuck. Yes. As soon as that happens, I will consider us to be living in the future we have dreamed about for decades. Although before this discovery, there was no reason to believe it wasn't possible. Einstein's mass/energy equivalence says that with enough energy, you can make matter, and vice-versa.
0.0 You do realize if say some criminals got their hands on this.......well that just wouldn't be fun XD.
Awesome. Weapons aren't toys, though (some little kid might dismember their hand or something), so who would the target audience of these lightsabers be?
Eh, you could say the same for every new, terrible weapon that's invented. Not that that makes it okay (as our tech has far eclipsed our wisdom in its use) but at least it'll probably be prohibitively expensive and ultimately impractical compared to regular old guns.
True, but I'm pretty sure if my ex ever had the money for it and it was basically a light saber...he would go nuts for it. Annnnd probably cut his own arm off XD.
I don't think there is any mention of this having any of the burning or vaporisation effects of the Star Wars lightsabers. The quote is very vague and only mentions deflection (i.e. no different to using any other solid object... like a stick for example).
Deflection of a moving projectile was the biggest problem in creating a real life lightsaber, now since there is a way to do it, the second step is using some sort of plasma or something in the blade so it can cut and possibly melt or burn. (lightsabers usually do not vaporize, unless you are talking about Expanded Universe stories with more advanced Sabers; sorry my NERD is showing. -_- )
I don't think material photons are the best medium for heating through any means . And if this was possible a burning blade would have been created using some other medium before now. Unless the material photons have that quality already I don't think they are going to help with creating light sabers as seen in the movies. (I'm also curious as to whether these are even visible at all, seeing as they won't be passing into the retina - they'd have to reflect incoming light or emit new photons somehow.) (Also vaporisation is just caused by boiling, which is a result of high heat. I have little knowledge of Star Wars so I don't know what they mean when they use vaporisation there.)
Ah, I see; well, I think it MIGHT have that quality already to begin with otherwise I do not believe they would even mention it at all. By vaporization I usually think like the phasers from Star Trek (biggest nerd on the planet coming through), as for not being seen by the retina that could be a result of the plasma being ignited from the photon blade just to give it that melting/cutting edge that lightsabers are known for. Either way I will still agree we are FAR from that tech.
HowStuffWorks "How Lightsabers Work" ? But in all seriousness, we're still pretty far off. The actual paper written on the subject says that the students used supercold rubidium gas as the medium in which to create these attractive photons (did that sound wrong? Intentional. ). It might be hard to get a constant supply of that in a little lightsaber handle. Every step is exciting, though! Science can't advance very far in troubled times, so I'm not expected major breakthroughs within the next twenty or so years. But... all in good time May the force be with you. Like this proto-lightsaber, I do xD
Energy supply seems to be a big hang up. Actually, energy storage is already a huge issue, where most phones/tablets/laptops have a large percentage of their volumes just devoted to the battery because battery technology can't keep up with the actual electronics.
It's still a piece of technology our time hasn't discovered yet, but it's a possibility. Though if they really made lightsabers that could cut and burn, it couldn't just be readily available like that...
Oh my goodness, Christmas present for the future. Like, more than half of my Christmas' were wishing for a real lightsaber. YAY!
"Give me a good blaster, kid" --Han Solo-- As long as bullets are a more cost effective way of killing they will continue being used.
i woudnt be to worried,they wont suddenly have jedi skills and would be able to deflect a bullet from a police officer. theywould only be abletogetinto the banks safe. bythentheyd probablymanage to build some sort of force field though yes i want to kill my spacebar
There are times I don't like science: 'As they (the fotons/light particles) entered the cloud, their energy excited atoms along their path, causing them to lose speed. Inside the cloud medium the photons dispersively coupled to strongly interacting atoms in highly excited Rydberg states. This caused the photons to behave as massive particles with strong mutual attraction (photon molecules). Eventually the photons exited the cloud together as normal photons often entangled in pairs.' So you can only use this effect in the medium. Unless you plan to convert the whole universe into an extremely cold rubidium cloud, light sabers wouldn't work using this approach. :tears: Still it's reasonably cool and this effect might be used for other nice things.
