Researchers now able to stop, restart light

i think theyh are light particles..

"Incoming light can carry information expressed by changes or modulations of its frequency, amplitude, and phase. When the light stops, that information is stored just like information is stored in the electronic memory of a computer. To access the information, you turn on a control laser, and out it comes. "

That is what your probably basing your question off.. and i think they are taking about controlling light like electricity to be used for programming. its refferring to how many times light goes or how much light goes throughh per given amount of time..all of the changes are compared against a control and thats what future software will read...

Someone correct me if i am wrong.. my little disclaimer.. because we didnt talk much about this kind of stuff in my physics either..

I didn't take either of your levels of Physics but to stop Light from going straight line you could spring a loop in front of it but, that wouldn't be stopped the Light from MOVING. It would still be moving, just not progressing forward on the straight line path.

And whenever you wanted it to escape the subroutine oops loop you would just turn off power to the loop, at the moment you desired, so I think that's where they could create electrical circuits, to send the pulse either Yay or Nay directions. In short, they've crossed platforms on ya.

They have invented the Light equivalent of a PNP or NPN transistor.

That's my take anyway.

From Wikipedia:
"In physics and chemistry, wave–particle duality is the concept that all energy (and thus all matter) exhibits both wave-like and particle-like properties. A central concept of quantum mechanics, duality addresses the inadequacy of classical concepts like "particle" and "wave" in fully describing the behavior of quantum-scale objects."

Thank you all for your assistance. I had the sense that you were all on the same track as the genteman who posted the third comment and whose summary kind of put the final pieces together for me when he mentioned the inadequacy of the traditional models to describe the "duality" (though, of course, "duality" COULD be viewed as a more elegant expression for "Neither and Both"). "Inadequacy" hardly surprises me, though. As I told my daughter when seeing the most recent version of the Periodic Table..."Where in the HEMLOCK did all these new elements come from?! Whaddaya mean, Dad? How many elements did YOU guys have?" "Like...four..."

If they have constructed an "energy honey pot" trap they have the makings for a superweapon using massive amounts of stored sunlight. On the happy side they would also be able to put us completely on sun power.

Guess which one they'll make first, just don't tell your daughter.

WoW! you too I have one mounted on the wall next to the door. All this time I thought I was specal damn it sux knowing others have one to. Well I guess I quit useing mine if every body has one.

Einstein has never been the end all in theories of physics. He has been proven wrong various times, such as his concepts of time relative to light.

Technology has moved faster than they ever have before, and what we are capable of now test the limits of his theories and break them occasionally. Remember, we're talking about nearly 60 years since his presence.

Exactly raindrop,

As much as I appreciate Einstein he shouldn't be the 'be all end all' of science. Why should we limit ourselves? Especially considering he's been proven wrong.

Photons of EM waves are stopped every single day, then re-emitted.
Light (visible light) rarely travels directly through objects, just as you said about the sun.

Also, Einstein isn't god, he sure came up with some good theories and concepts, but the "facts" are the minority.
And considering how the entire field that he "created" refuses to mix in with the other 3/4s of Physics (that we know of), i can guarantee you that his work is very flawed.
And so far, his gravity waves haven't been detected with Gravity Probe [whatever version it is on now].

Put simply, we barely know a damn thing about EM waves. (and this is an opinion from actual scientists, not my own)

Like the other guys said, Einstein is far from being the final word as relativity is still incomplete (being that it is still incompatible with quantum mechanics).

As for your concerns of what is going on, you probably missed this paragraph:
"Hau explains that light entering the atomic entanglement transfers its energy to the atoms. Light energy raises the atoms to higher energy levels in ways that depend on the frequency and intensity of the light. The laser illuminating the cloud at right angles to the incoming beam acts like a parking brake, stopping the beam inside the cloud when it is shut off. When it is turned on again, the brake is released, the atoms transfer their energy back to the light, and it leaves the end of the cloud at full speed and intensity."

The cloud of atoms near absolute zero is acting like a light sponge, [it absorbs the energy of the light into the atoms] fully and completely . . . and then discharges them (though not perfectly) . . . all precisely under human control with using lasers as an off-on switch . . . and that's the accomplishment.

[edit: fixed typo ^]

That's what I was wondering.

C = the speed of light in a vacuum.

these experiments were not conducted in a total vacuum.

Oh wow...

Actually lightsabers use a Plamsa subsistence (watched some show on the History channel about it) and he said that Lightsabers would be impossible sense you cannot stop plamsa like we can, now, light. But who knows, maybe we can do it now that light can be stopped...

Yes, you could easily use this to make a light saber... but it wouldn't be like the one on the History Channel. Still kill ya though. I can't tell you how they'd do it because then I'd have ta you know.

Wormholes are irrelevant when faced with the theory of time travel, that's just a collective misconception. When faced with time travel you must consult Special relativity theory and the Gravitational time dilation phenomena. Gravitational time dilation is the effect of time passing at different rates in regions of different gravitational potential.
That means that Time, is not linear, it is multi-dimensional, in order to travel back in time, you would have to take these trillions of time dilation factors into account, and quantify the Trillions of directional probabilities to essentially choose an accurate path which is damn near impossible...:)

... and coming out the other side an uncooked Chicken McNugget coating the inside of your spacecraft is a consideration also eh? The desire for Time Travel and indeed space travel also is the desire for a better place, a better Time... and belies how helpless we feel to change a cotton pickin thing every important decision appears to be made by a non-accountable entity... that also seems to get everything it wants and the rest of us peons can go straight to hell.

I dunno, call me CRAZY, but that sounds to me
like a definition from the 1960's about Communism.

Merkabah.....that's all I have to say....

fuck yah that was my favorite quote too

"Does this mean we can slow down time now...? Or possibly travel through it?"

nope, this paper doesn't say that.

[but we could always "slow down" time just by increasing our velocity close to the speed of light . . . and we're traveling through time as we speak, strictly speaking.]

I travel through time at the speed of regular time.

Best movie ever buddy

Agreed. Blew me away the first time i saw it.

have you listened to Dr. Michio Kaku talk about the future of our current improbalities?

". . . is making me wonder if anything conceivable is scientifically possible."
-The short answer to that is unfortunately no.

The reason being is that we know that the universes behaves mathematically, and mathematics is quite literally the language of pure logic . . . so in turn, the physical universe behaves logically.

So the reason why the answer to your question is no, is because the mind has a rather alien property to it that is unique to the rest of the universe . . . the ability to conceive things that are illogical . . . and because of that, we will always be able to conceive things (like humans flying without "any" aid other than their willpower) that will never be scientifically possible.

The universe is filled with limits, though there is a ton of cool shit between them.

[Michio Kaku is a sensationalist that gets paid (and rather well) to entertain. I wouldn't take everything he says seriously.]

I agree with lucidstone to a large extent that the human mind tends to want to go off unrestrained by the laws of physics. However, in the not-too-distant when the human mind is accelerated above the plodding speed it is now... the idea of forcing air molecules to gather together more densely under our feet & body and lift us aloft is a very real possibility.

We just wouldn't have a steering wheel is all. hehehehe

wish it was as interesting when i was younger, it's pretty much too late to get into now.

I feel the same way. I intend to become a well-informed layman one of these days though.

It's never to late. If you have a basic basic understanding of physics, I'd pick up "In Search of Schrodenger's Cat" by Paul Gibbon I think it was.

It's not very mathematical, definitely written for more of the layman, and it will get you caught up with quantum mechanics. Definitely not a bad place to start if you have a grasp on the basics of classical physics.

If you check out the article Jeff, it states in its latter half the similar tech could perhaps be used in personal computing.

This would make things a hell of a lot faster and secure (harder for hackers).

Ah cool, i missed that part. Thanks bishop