Slow Down! Scientists Can Now Reduce The Speed of Light

[mruuh]

This article reminded me of an old sci-fi novel by Bob Shaw called "Light of Other Days", where someone invented a glass pane that could hold several years worth of light - as if it was several lightyears thick, from the point of view of a photon inside it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_of_Other_Days

 

[Excludos]

This article does a very bad job at describing it, but it looks like they've found that light can slow down in free space. This is completely new, and not the same as light slowing down in water or glass, which has been known for 50 years.

If true, it means that everything we know about distance in space could be wrong.

Wait, you mean creationists may be right after all?
O_O
I don't want to live in such world.

Pretty sure it means that Pastafarianism is correct...mmmmmm, pasta!

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Please say "Theory suggests" & "may be able to" in future.

Might not get as many clicks. But you won't piss off as many scientists. (and me)

 

[Li Mu]

Meh! I did that yesterday. I just turned out the lights and it's speed dropped exponentially.

 

[Strazdas]

as others pointed out, speed of light is not constant, its dependant on medium its traveling through.

that being said if the light stayed slower after it has left a medium and this is not yet another miscalculation (like the one where they broke the speed of light that turned out to be a miscalculation) this looks pretty damn interesting.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I think this will need to be confirmed a few times over and what specifically they did to the light to slow it down. Findings out of bounds like these usually turn out as measurement or math error, none the less could be some incredibly interesting stuff is confirmed.