Fanboys Anonymous

For many Star Wars fans, desires of having a lightsaber in their hands has been dreamt about ever since the first movie came out on May 25, 1977. Soon after, fans have fantasized about having their own lightsaber battles. Although we are still a long, long ways away from having anything of the sort, scientists at Harvard and MIT just might have something which is a start in this direction.


Could we eventually have our own lightsaber battles?

According to an article by Ryan Whitwam of Geek.com:

A team of scientists from MIT and Harvard have been herding photons through a cloud of super-cold atoms in an attempt to get them to do something that was once considered impossible — bind together.



Courtesy of Geek.com

Whitwam continues:

The team used a vacuum chamber filled with rubidium atoms to facilitate the formation of photonic matter. The cloud of gas was cooled to within a few degrees of absolute zero using (fittingly) lasers.

Of course, there is still much research to be done. While this could possibly be a step in the direction for the creation of laser swords, "A few photons sticking together is a long way from a lightsaber, but we can still dream, can’t we?" said Whitwam.