Frozen Light

[Blackmane]

I think that is will be a long time off before this is ever put into use.

Bose-Einstein condensates are something that form at approximately .1 degrees above absolute zero. Right it takes massive laser cooling and other methods that I don't even know about to keep the atoms that cool. The light is stopped inside of it because the atoms have practically no movement and so the light photons get trapped with them.

It's very fascinating stuff though. It will be cool when they find easier ways to maintain it. I read about this phase of matter a while ago. The ions get so slowed down that sometimes they all settle in the same energy level, which forces them to stack up kind of weirdly.

more info about this phase of matter can be found at http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/bose.html