May 24, 2006
Look at me! Look at me! I'm light!
Light did some crazy things in the lab this year, not the least of which was going faster than itself.
In their experiment, [Rochester University's Robert] Boyd and his team split a burst of laser light, sending one beam through the optical fiber and allowing the other to travel without interference, for comparison. Oddly enough, the first beam’s peak exited the far end of the fiber way ahead of the peak of comparison pulse.
Odder still, the exiting peak escaped even before the orginal peak had entered the fiber. What had happened was that as soon as the leading edge of the original pulse entered the fiber, the fiber instantly cloned an identical pulse at the far end. That cloned peak exited before the rest of the orginal had been introduced.
Liloia.com has obtained an exclusive chat transcript from that day:
MrOhm1964: OMG.
MrOhm1964: dude
Mitochondruid: ?
MrOhm1964: we made light go faster than istelf today
Mitochondruid: did you see survivor? i can't belive Aras won. wanker.
Mitochondruid: no way
MrOhm1964: yes way!!!
MrOhm1964: agreed. he was totally riding terry's back the whole time
Mitochondruid: pics of light!!!
MrOhm1964: gmail or univ account?
Mitochondruid: gmail.
MrOhm1964: I am totally getting a nobel prize
Mitochondruid: those are for peace
MrOhm1964: I wanted Cerie to win
MrOhm1964: she was getting hot toward the end
Mitochondruid: youa re sick. mcd's today?
MrOhm1964: um, no... I'm busy MAKING LIGHT GO FASTER THAN ITSLEF today. but thank you
Mitochondruid: heh
MrOhm1964: bring me back 2 applie pies.
Mitochondruid: k. give me a dollar when I get back
MrOhm1964: dude. I just MADE LIGHT GO FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT and you can't spot me a dollar for two apple pies?
MrOhm1964: WTF?
MrOhm1964: I am NOT thanking you in my nobel prixe speech
Mitochondruid: oh is your faster than light light going to bring *peace* to the world? cause you're not getting any prize otherwise
MrOhm1964: KMA. there's the peace prize and there are OTHER prizes. bring me pie.
Mitochondruid: later.