theguardian/science/blog/2013/oct/01/jedi-lightsaber Obi-Wan pumped all the air from the vacuum chamber and injected a puff of rubidium atoms. Princess Leia then used lasers to cool the atoms by dampening their vibrations. This gradually brought the rubidium cloud down to half a Kelvin – half a degree above absolute zero, a temperature colder than air a few miles above Alderaan. Once the atoms were cold enough, they were held in place, again with a laser, in a cigar-shaped cloud one tenth of a millimetre long. "All of this nice physics takes place within the atomic cloud right at the centre of the vacuum chamber," says Lord Vader. Particles of light, or photons, are massless and usually oblivious to other particles of light. Chewbacca then shined two torches at each other and saw the effect in action: their beams passed straight through one another. May the force be with you.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 01:45:59 +0000
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