Magic Science: Physicists Move Light

In a quantum mechanical sleight of hand, Harvard physicists have shown that they can not only bring a pulse of light, the fleetest of nature's particles, to a complete halt, but also resuscitate the light at a different location and let it continue on its way.

That ability to catch, store, move and release light could be used in future computers to process information encoded in the light pulses.

"It's been a wonderful problem to try to wrap your brain around," said Lene Vestergaard Hau, a professor of physics at Harvard and senior author of a paper describing the experiment appearing Thursday in the journal Nature. "There are so many doors that open up."