Science On The March in March!

It's been a busy week in Science.

Turns out, at the nanoscale, we can't even determine what direction light is moving in. Passing through plates closer together than the wavelength of the light, they propagate as evanescent waves and our understanding of physics just breaks. Their direction is an imaginary value and cannot be calculated.

One, two, cha-cha-cha.

So one photon can carry a complex image, it travels at the speed limit of the universe, yet it can be stopped dead in its tracks and it can be focused to less then its own wavelength... whereupon it immediately starts traveling in imaginary directions.

Cool.

At least atoms, those pesky little thingies, are under control. Finally. Well, most of them anyway, it says here. Any of the paramagnetic atoms can be stopped dead in space and frozen at near absolute zero with an explanation that sounds like absolute bullshit (the atoms are stopped by passing a supersonic beam through an "atomic coilgun" and cooled by using "single-photon cooling..." and gear that looks like your retarded brother made it.

High Tech Atom Trap. Sure it is.

On the bright side (eh-hem), this item from last summer describes a lenless device called a plate (presumably for a lack of poetic imagination on the part of the scientists involved) which can focus electromagnetic waves to points much smaller than their own wavelength. Hmm. Imagine three orders of magnitude more storage in the same space, for starters. Get ready to toss out all your iPods. Again.

Hurrah for science.