MIT Professor Says Lightsaber Discovery Could Lead To Amazing Scientific Advancements
CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – An MIT scientist who has helped develop real life lightsaber molecules says the discovery could lead to amazing scientific advancements.
Read: Harvard, MIT Scientists Create Real Lightsaber
Professor Vladan Vuletic spoke with WBZ-TV's Paula Ebben on Friday and explained that by using lasers, he's discovered a new form of matter.
"It has long been a dream to have photons of light beams interact with one another," he said.
"We use laser beams and shine them in from 6 sides and these laser beams actually cool the atoms," Vuletic says of his complex physics research.
He has been able to bind together those light particles, or photons, into a single molecule.
"Maybe a characteristic of a lightsaber is that you have these two light beams and they don't go through each other as you might expect they just kind of bounce off each other," he explained.
Professor Vuletic says his research could eventually lead to quantum computing, possibly within the century.
Computers that run at the speed of light instead of electricity would be 10,000 times faster than what we're used to right now.
