Comments on: IBM slows light, readies it for networking

Light's fast, but if it can be slowed down, it can be used inside computers to cut down on energy, Big Blue says.

[ahzzmandius]

tpo in article

That would be "photons" not "photos" in the last paragraph. :)

[mmace1]

Slows light, or gives it a longer path?

I assume IBM didn't actually SLOW the light, as the speed of light is a universal constant. I think they mean with all the holes, IBM made the light take a ziz-zag pattern across the distance, thereby lowering its speed in one direction.

Like a if you did 200 miles of increadibly long zig-zaggy roads @ 40mph, but at the end you were only 1 mile from where you started "as the crow flys". Your speed was still 40, just your speed over that crow-flys distance I guess could be called slow, so to speak.

[Chris Baumgardt]

Actually the really did slow light

This has been done in a few labs over the past year or so:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/10/03_slowlight.shtml

http://www.msnbc.com/news/242698.asp?cp1=1

http://www.physorg.com/news6951.html

The linked articles say pretty much the same thing, but I wanted to give multiple views to show it wasn't just media hype and misinformation.