Via jkagear.com:

The First Step To Making A Real Life Light Saber Has Been Discovered through science!
Scientists discovered a way to make light particles stick together with a new laboratory method that allows photons to travel parallel to each other at a specific distance from each other. The light particles have been joined together into a “molecule” The team comprised of top researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland calim that if you alter the parameters of the photon particles during the binding process, they are able to travel parallel to each other and a specific set distance from one another.

Viral style christmas 1-300x300To make the Photons interact like this, a sophisticated laboratory set up that uses a hyper cold rubidium gas is utilized. Gizmodo says, ““It’s not a molecule per se, but you can imagine it as having a similar kind of structure,” according to Alexey Gorshkov, a scientist from NIST. “We’re learning how to build complex states of light that, in turn, can be built into more complex objects. This is the first time anyone has shown how to bind two photons a finite distance apart.” This study was an extension of a study that builds off of results that were studied last year and they claim they have found a new state of matter.
Even though this study gives “Star Wars” fans a glimmer of hope that they may be the lightsaber wielding Jedi depicted in the films, the scientists say that this is still a long way off from becoming a reality. However, the discovery has blown open a monolith of potential for the technological industry, specifically the fiber optic system that we’re all running on could be replaced with optical systems. wow, you have to love what science can do these days!