TIL 36: Unstoppable Forces and Immovable Objects

Today I learned, that in 1999, Harvard physicist Lene Hau was able to slow down light to 17 meters per second and in 2001, was able to stop light completely.

So what does it mean? To stop light?

The answer lies in an element called Bose-Einstein condensate.

Think of a cloud of atoms (sodium atoms) supercooled to a negative billion degrees Celsius.

The Bose-Einstein condensate is basically this extremely supercooled gas in a cigar-shaped bottle that traps a beam of light within it and slows it down.

The original speed of light is around 300000 km/ sec. The gas slows it down to the speed of a bicycle.

You could argue here that one could simply point a laser to a wall and stop light.

Well, this isn’t stopping light, this is merely converting it into heat energy into the wall. All the information that gives light its unique property is lost.

The Bose-Einstein condensate helps slow down light within it and keeps all the information intact. Light could simply pass through the other end at its normal speed retaining all of its previous properties.

And the implications of this, although futuristic, can be huge.

Imagine building a quantum computer, a system governed not by normal 0s and 1s of a normal computer, but by atoms that could be both 0s or 1s at the same time.

Quantum computers can be capable of greater processing or computing power. Photon-based quantum computers could easily work with fiber optic technology, and have applications in fields of medicine, financial services, defense, and telecommunications.

Although the tech is still a long way to go, and an even longer way to be commercialized, but the implications can be huge.

Cheers to underappreciated geniuses like Lene Hau. The future is carved by the crazies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Nj2uTZc10

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