Popular science fiction trope finally a possible reality

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Geeks and nerds could soon put away their plastic, extendable lightsaber replicas and pick up the real thing.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for them to create a lightsaber,” sophomore Micah Fryslie said. “I think it’s hype-worthy.”

Researchers at the Massachusetts School of Technology and Harvard have accidently discovered a molecule that mimics the iconic onscreen weapon of the Jedi Knights in the Star Wars films.

In a report published in Nature, a weekly science journal, the physicists managed to join photons together to form molecules. Previously, photons were believed to pass through each other without interacting, like two flashlight beams shining into each other.

“Most of the properties of light we know about originate from the fact that photons are massless, and that they do not interact with each other,” Mikhail Lukin, a Harvard physics professor who led the research team said to the Harvard Gazette. “What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind together to form molecules.”

Although a lightsaber has yet to be constructed, Lukin hinted that the recent discovery of interacting photons could lead to its creation in the near future.

“It’s not an inapt analogy to compare this to lightsabers,” Lukin said. “When these photons interact with each other, they’re pushing against and deflecting each other. The physics of what’s happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies.”

The team was looking into developing photons for use in a quantum supercomputer, rather than the creation of a lightsaber. The recent discoveries of interacting photons came by experimentation in a process of blasting photons through a cloud of cooled rubidium atoms. Through this process the researchers found that when more than one photon was blasted through at once, the photons clumped together.

“We do this for fun, and because we’re pushing the frontiers of science,” Lukin said. “But it feeds into the bigger picture of what we’re doing because photons remain the best possible means to carry quantum information. The handicap, though, has been that photons don’t interact with each other.”

Fryslie said this news is like a dream come true.

“Growing up, Star Wars was the coolest thing; I would run around my yard with my little plastic lightsabers,” Fryslie said. “When I heard the news I got really excited. I’ll be honest – I was freaking out a little bit.”

Fryslie said he understands that a fully functional lightsaber has yet to be created but sees its possible future as promising.

“It’s similar but not yet the real thing,” Fryslie said of the photons. “Even though it’s not the real thing it’s one step closer. It’s exciting.”

Senior Daniel Agin said a lightsaber’s creation could be troublesome.

“My intial reaction is that [creating a lightsaber] would be really cool, but I don’t think it would see much practical use,” Agin said. “A sword that could cut through anything isn’t something you really want anyone to have.”

Agin thinks it will be awhile before anything resembling a lightsaber is created.

“They say they discovered lightsabers when actually they discovered a thing that acts similar to lightsabers,” Agin said. “The report talks about a few photons not anything near the same scale.”

On a second thought, Agin said the technology behind a functional lightsaber could perhaps have some positive uses.

“It could have cool scientific uses if it was applied,” Agin said. “Medical technologies, drilling, you could lightsaber on down through the rock.”

Agin also sees a marketable version.

“A stick made of light – you could sell that to people,” Agin said. “Kids hit each other with toy lightsabers all the time. This wouldn’t be much different.”

Junior Tyler Jones said there could soon be great actual applications of the recent photon discovery, but not a lightsaber.

“Lightsabers are pretty far down the road,” Jones said. “I can really see the real life implications but not really of a lightsaber.”

Although quantum supercomputers could be here before lightsabers, the idea of wielding the “elegant weapon for a more civilized time” as Obi-Wan Kenobi described it, will still boost the dreams of geeks and nerds alike.

“What it will be useful for we don’t know yet,” Lukin said. “But it’s a new state of matter, so we are hopeful that new applications may emerge as we continue to investigate these photonic molecules’ properties.”