# American Scientists "Accidentally" Invent Lightsabers



## Foxi4 (Oct 2, 2013)

Wannabe-Jedi rejoice all around the world as Harvard and MIT physicists announce their latest discovery which may very well lead to the creation of the weapons envisioned by George Lucas, featured in the long-running Space Opera _"Star Wars"_.


> _"Most of the properties of light we know about originate from the fact that photons are massless and do not interact (...) What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they act *as though they have mass, and bind together to form molecules*. (...) *It's not an in-apt analogy to compare this to lightsabers.* When these photons interact with each other, they're pushing against and deflect each other. The physics of what's happening in these molecules *is similar to what we see in the movies.*"_
> ~Professor Mikhail Lukin, Harvard University


You heard it from the mouth of the professor himself - we can now build sabers... out of light. Not that it'd be an actually practical weapon, but it's still an interesting discovery right there...

Ahh, magnets - how do they work? 

 Source


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## Zaertix (Oct 2, 2013)

*Lucas but otherwise YAY!


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## Deleted member 473940 (Oct 2, 2013)

The force is strong! Too strong I am afraid.


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 2, 2013)

Now all I need is someone at Harvard to invent me a mobile suit, a gundam (I want a wing zero) or a knightmare frame and I'll be happy.
Oh and invent me a Mega Buster while you're at it.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 2, 2013)

Zaertix said:


> *Lucas but otherwise YAY!


 
Corrected, thanks for pointing that out!


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## duffmmann (Oct 2, 2013)

Thats awesome, would it be painful to be stabbed with such a light saber though?  Or would the light, (as I suspect it would) just bounce off of anything it comes in contact with?  If so, awesome, painless lightsabers sound perfect for costumes, raves, parties, dances, etc, pretty kickass if thats the case.


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## marksteele (Oct 2, 2013)

duffmmann said:


> Thats awesome, would it be painful to be stabbed with such a light saber though? Or would the light, (as I suspect it would) just bounce off of anything it comes in contact with? If so, awesome, painless lightsabers sound perfect for costumes, raves, parties, dances, etc, pretty kickass if thats the case.


 

you forgot epic nerdouts at cons


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## Foxi4 (Oct 2, 2013)

duffmmann said:


> Thats awesome, would it be painful to be stabbed with such a light saber though? Or would the light, (as I suspect it would) just bounce off of anything it comes in contact with? If so, awesome, painless lightsabers sound perfect for costumes, raves, parties, dances, etc, pretty kickass if thats the case.


 
If they form molecules and _"act as if they had mass"_ then depending on how the medium is stored and how much _"mass"_ we're talking about, you would feel impact... Probably nothing severe, but hey.


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## Arras (Oct 2, 2013)

Well, if they'd act like foam weapons or something they'd be the invention of the century for nerds and roleplayers.


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 2, 2013)

if it uses magnets than wouldn't the Light Saber look more like the Beam Katana from No More Heros at least for the 1st gen or 2?


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## Tom Bombadildo (Oct 2, 2013)

BRB buying lightsaber.


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## Osha (Oct 2, 2013)

Well damn...
Neat.


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## Gahars (Oct 2, 2013)

Lightsabers? In real life?






Now where does the Second Amendment fall when it comes to laser swords?


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## Foxi4 (Oct 2, 2013)

dragonblood9999 said:


> if it uses magnets than wouldn't the Light Saber look more like the Beam Katana from No More Heros at least for the 1st gen or 2?


 
T'was a meme reference, really - it doesn't actually use magnets... I don't think...


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 2, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> T'was a meme reference, really - it doesn't actually use magnets... I don't think...


well if it did use magnets, I think i would look more like the Beam Katana than a Light Saber based on the technology, i mean it would make sense to have 1 positive magnet at the base and 1 negative magnet at the tip(or vice versa) to make the beam.


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## calmwaters (Oct 2, 2013)

Oh please; the way you make a lightsaber is by creating the handle with the pull down button and when you do, that triggers the magnet to rise from the hole and the light molecules that are attracted to it turn on when they are exposed to air. But hey, I don't work at MIT, so whatever.


dragonblood9999 said:


> if it uses magnets than wouldn't the Light Saber look more like the Beam Katana from No More Heros at least for the 1st gen or 2?


 
It would.


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## Hop2089 (Oct 2, 2013)

I'll order some beam knives, maybe about 10 or 15 please.


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## Jamstruth (Oct 2, 2013)

duffmmann said:


> Thats awesome, would it be painful to be stabbed with such a light saber though? Or would the light, (as I suspect it would) just bounce off of anything it comes in contact with? If so, awesome, painless lightsabers sound perfect for costumes, raves, parties, dances, etc, pretty kickass if thats the case.


Y'know lasers? Really highly concentrated light energy that we direct at things to cut or blind them. This is basically a solid laser beam that can hit things. The edges will be epic-level hot and will slice you up like butter.


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## DiscostewSM (Oct 2, 2013)

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."


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## RedCoreZero (Oct 2, 2013)

I wonder what next they would do with condoms


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## Hop2089 (Oct 2, 2013)

RedCoreZero said:


> I wonder what next they would do with condoms


 
Would light emitting condoms even be safe to wear, I wouldn't wear them but buy some as a weird collector's item.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 2, 2013)

Jamstruth said:


> Y'know lasers? Really highly concentrated light energy that we direct at things to cut or blind them. This is basically a solid laser beam that can hit things. The edges will be epic-level hot and will slice you up like butter.


You're overestimating light... in general.  Moreover, we don't know much about this all-new _"state"_ of photons. Heat doesn't come from nowhere y'know. I'm assuming that there would be some heat created as the article mentions photons interacting with and deflecting each other and if they do act like matter, the friction this causes probably would create heat... but I'm not sure if we could call that _"being superheated"_.


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## ßleck (Oct 2, 2013)

Hop2089 said:


> Would light emitting condoms even be safe to wear, I wouldn't wear them but buy some as a weird collector's item.


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## bowser (Oct 2, 2013)

Screw that, I want a Death Star


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## Maxternal (Oct 2, 2013)

Jamstruth said:


> Y'know lasers? Really highly concentrated light energy that we direct at things to cut or blind them. This is basically a solid laser beam that can hit things. The edges will be epic-level hot and will slice you up *like butter*.


Sound to my more like trying to burn through butter with a laser pointer.

Also, since no light actually reaches your eyes you wouldn't really be able to see the beam EXCEPT a bright flash when you first try to cut something with it and all that light crashes into your "victim", bouncing, lost, our of control into your surroundings as light normally does.

MAYBE if you had you had enough light built up in that beam you could manage a reasonable burn mark where it first makes contact but since all the light would be "used up" instantly, it would take some time to "charge" your beam back up with more light.


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 2, 2013)

I can Imagen this happing


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## Foxi4 (Oct 2, 2013)

Maxternal said:


> Sound to my more like trying to burn through butter with a laser pointer.
> 
> Also, since no light actually reaches your eyes you wouldn't really be able to see the beam EXCEPT a bright flash when you first try to cut something with it and all that light crashes into your "victim", bouncing, lost, our of control into your surroundings as light normally does.
> 
> MAYBE if you had you had enough light built up in that beam you could manage a reasonable burn mark where it first makes contact but since all the light would be "used up" instantly, it would take some time to "charge" your beam back up with more light.


 
Seeing that the individual molecules interact with each other and bounce, I would assume that they are visible within whatever medium they are stored in, much like a laser pointer is visible in smoke since it bounces off the smoke particles.


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 2, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> Seeing that the individual molecules interact with each other and bounce.


that what think, also the light would probably be super condensed, so millions if not billions of light photons(with mass) bouncing off of each other would most likely create a lot of heat


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## Maxternal (Oct 2, 2013)

I followed the "how to make ..." link at the top of the source page there and the last paragraph was interesting
http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/oct/01/jedi-lightsaber


Spoiler: Spoilers spoil your fun.



So is a lightsaber around the corner? The photonic molecules existed for a fleeting moment in a cloud of atoms that is a fraction of a millimetre long, colder than outer space, enclosed in a metal tank, and surrounded by tables bearing a tonne of equipment. "I don't know what to say. The lightsaber is fictitious," says Firstenberg. "We don't know what the physics is behind a lightsaber. I don't know how George Lucas did it."


 I LOL'd


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## tbgtbg (Oct 2, 2013)

Gahars said:


> Lightsabers? In real life?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You have the right to bear arms, not the right to slice arms off.


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## ShadowSoldier (Oct 3, 2013)

Am I the only one who prefers the beam katana from No More Heroes?

Also, anybody here used to call them life savers when you were younger? It seems like that was also a fitting name.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 3, 2013)

ShadowSoldier said:


> Am I the only one who prefers the beam katana from No More Heroes?
> 
> Also, anybody here used to call them life savers when you were younger? It seems like that was also a fitting name.


 
...you mean the mints? 

No, I don't think anyone called them that... There must be some cleaver childhood reasoning there but... I'm not just not seeing it.


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## ShadowSoldier (Oct 3, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> ...you mean the mints?
> 
> No, I don't think anyone called them that...


 
They're not mints! And also this was like when I was before 10, or just turned 10. I had never seen the original star wars and my first one was.... sadly... Episode 1. But I didn't mind it because it was a pretty cool day.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 3, 2013)

ShadowSoldier said:


> They're not mints! And also this was like when I was before 10, or just turned 10. I had never seen the original star wars and my first one was.... sadly... Episode 1. But I didn't mind it because it was a pretty cool day.


 
Mints and hard candy then, or so says Wikipedia.


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## The Catboy (Oct 3, 2013)

Help! I accidentally build a Lightsaber!

How does one simply accidentally build something like that?


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## tbgtbg (Oct 3, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> Mints and hard candy then, or so says Wikipedia.



Don't forget wint-O-green (technically not a mint)

Anyway I saw it when I was 3 and don't think I ever called them life savers, certainly not when I was 10


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## Bladexdsl (Oct 3, 2013)

now invent the sex-bot


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## Sop (Oct 3, 2013)

Has science gone too far?


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## Psionic Roshambo (Oct 3, 2013)

Scientists please work on homing lasers next! 

Sweet sweet homing lasers, what's not to love.


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## Maxternal (Oct 3, 2013)

Oh, and



Spoiler: Just checked and it's not EoF so this goes in a spoiler


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## Taleweaver (Oct 3, 2013)

Ahem...



> Inexplicably, reports suggest that physicists have not yet begun the process of using the technology to build actual lightsaber-style weapons, nor have they perfected the THHHHHHWWWWOM! sound traditionally manifested when duelling Jedis do battle.


 
So basically, they have only..."discovered a way to bind photons together in order to form a new molecule which behaves almost exactly like George Lucas's deadly devices".


Personally, I don't see the advantage of a lightsaber. It's impossible to sneak with, noisy and probably uses a ton of energy (in real life, the thing would most likely run out of battery power at exactly the wrong time...wait...skip that: it WILL run out of power at the wrong time because that is when you actually NEED IT). The only advantage over something like a katana blade (which already exists) is that it's easier to carry.


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## KingVamp (Oct 3, 2013)

Maxternal said:


> Also, since no light actually reaches your eyes you wouldn't really be able to see the beam EXCEPT a bright flash when you first try to cut something with it and all that light crashes into your "victim", bouncing, lost, our of control into your surroundings as light normally does.


Looks pretty cool.




Bind enough photons together and you will have the ultimate tool.


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## Walker D (Oct 3, 2013)

Wow ! ..That's insane :o

Photons acting like they have mass ...and building molecules-like structures? ...damn ...the world is getting even crazier


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## WhiteMaze (Oct 3, 2013)

This is incredible.

If there's one thing I never thought it would happen in our life time, is early light controlling technology.

What's next? Portable black holes? Oh wait....I already have one of those in my wallet.


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## duffmmann (Oct 4, 2013)

Jamstruth said:


> Y'know lasers? Really highly concentrated light energy that we direct at things to cut or blind them. This is basically a solid laser beam that can hit things. The edges will be epic-level hot and will slice you up like butter.


 

Source?  Not all lasers have this behavior, many lasers are next to harmless to touch (example a laser pen), so I am genuinely curious if this would be painful or not, just cuz you say that doesn't make believe that to be so at all.


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## Jamstruth (Oct 4, 2013)

duffmmann said:


> Source? Not all lasers have this behavior, many lasers are next to harmless to touch (example a laser pen), so I am genuinely curious if this would be painful or not, just cuz you say that doesn't make believe that to be so at all.


I talk only from my own understanding of Physics and the article's description.

The reason a Laser can get to such high power levels is due to the density and focus of the beam as well as the energy in each photon. More Photons=More Energy=More Heat. Now imagine if those photons were condensed from a beam into a solid. The most dense form of matter. It seems to me it's like the difference between dumping a bucket of water on your head and dropping a slab of ice.

Light IS energy. The more condensed it is, the more powerful it is (as shown by lasers). You can vary that energy level by the power of the original beam as well as it's focus. It's been a while since I did Standard Grade Physics so my knowledge of how lasers work is rusty.


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## Rockhoundhigh (Oct 4, 2013)

So now I can win a beam katana off of an internet auction?


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## DJ91990 (Oct 7, 2013)

This is beyond cool! Now if only I could have an awesome light-pocketknife with customize-able colors!


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## RedCoreZero (Oct 7, 2013)

I accidentally shut down the government!


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