https://www.morningticker.com/2018/02/sc...discovery/

Another new scientific discovery that might crush the limits on Moore's Law.

Scientists have just found a way to create a new form of light that could totally change the future of computing and communications. Researchers in a lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were able to link photons and create an entirley new light form that could be used to build light crystals with tremendous scientific applications.

Researchers did this by creating a cloud of chilled rubidium atoms, using lasors to vaporize and create an ultracold cloud that caused atoms to move slowly, but remain very excited. Then scientists used lasers to send photons into the cloud, which slowed down and exited the cloud as pairs or triplets....

This won't have any impact on Moore's Law. And BTW, Moore's law is being pushed to its breaking point right now. Intel is the ONLY private semiconductor left with its own independent fabs. And even they are struggling to shrink much further. Intel went from tick-tock (shrink, architecture change, repeat) to tick-tick-tock (shrink, refine, architecture change, repeat). And the shrinks are coming with increasingly poor yields and increasingly nastier problems (read: quantum problems) to fix. I think even Moore's Law will succumb to the most fundamental of all man made abstract laws: The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns.

Here's s much more well-written release:
http://news.mit.edu/2018/physicists-crea...light-0215

Here's one part I thought was interesting:

Quote:While photons normally have no mass and travel at 300,000 kilometers per second (the speed of light), the researchers found that the bound photons actually acquired a fraction of an electron’s mass. These newly weighed-down light particles were also relatively sluggish, traveling about 100,000 times slower than normal noninteracting photons.

The question is where did it acquire the mass? Did it somehow take it from something in the cloud? Is it even a "new form of light" if it has mass?

(02-21-2018 10:00 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  Here's s much more well-written release:
http://news.mit.edu/2018/physicists-crea...light-0215

Here's one part I thought was interesting:

Quote:While photons normally have no mass and travel at 300,000 kilometers per second (the speed of light), the researchers found that the bound photons actually acquired a fraction of an electron’s mass. These newly weighed-down light particles were also relatively sluggish, traveling about 100,000 times slower than normal noninteracting photons.

The question is where did it acquire the mass? Did it somehow take it from something in the cloud? Is it even a "new form of light" if it has mass?

Was that confirmed by anyone else? That would be huge news if true. EDIT Never mind, looks like it was done at multiple places. I'm still holding out hope for light sabers though.

Does this mean the speed of light is not constant?

I can't seem to open the link anymore. I know the speed of light is only constant in a vacuum, I'm not sure if a cloud of atoms is enough to make it slower or not.

I wonder if this could impact cosmology.

(02-21-2018 07:40 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  This won't have any impact on Moore's Law. And BTW, Moore's law is being pushed to its breaking point right now. Intel is the ONLY private semiconductor left with its own independent fabs. And even they are struggling to shrink much further. Intel went from tick-tock (shrink, architecture change, repeat) to tick-tick-tock (shrink, refine, architecture change, repeat). And the shrinks are coming with increasingly poor yields and increasingly nastier problems (read: quantum problems) to fix. I think even Moore's Law will succumb to the most fundamental of all man made abstract laws: The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns.

Moore's law is the fallacy of phallic fallacies....

the law of diminishing is a given....it's only the 'when' it becomes the definable....then it transitions into something else that doesn't have a definable term as of yet....

(02-22-2018 05:28 PM)Claw Wrote:  Does this mean the speed of light is not constant?

it's a measurable constant.....

however, inventing another unit of measure is plausible as we continue to define physics....

look at it as fire being relative to today's version of how we generate heat.....

time......ol' Albert simply took the epidermis to the next level....

#science

#howIlovethee

(02-25-2018 12:40 PM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 05:28 PM)Claw Wrote:  Does this mean the speed of light is not constant?

it's a measurable constant.....

however, inventing another unit of measure is plausible as we continue to define physics....

look at it as fire being relative to today's version of how we generate heat.....

time......ol' Albert simply took the epidermis to the next level....

#science

#howIlovethee

It's only a constant in a vacuum. It definitely goes slower in water, e.g.

(02-26-2018 04:21 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(02-25-2018 12:40 PM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 05:28 PM)Claw Wrote:  Does this mean the speed of light is not constant?

it's a measurable constant.....

however, inventing another unit of measure is plausible as we continue to define physics....

look at it as fire being relative to today's version of how we generate heat.....

time......ol' Albert simply took the epidermis to the next level....

#science

#howIlovethee

It's only a constant in a vacuum. It definitely goes slower in water, e.g.

which is why it's measurable relative to the impact of outside influence...that makes it a measurable constant in relativity....

it's nothing more than a measurable benchmark to help define more complex equations.....