Star Wars fans rejoice, you’re one step closer to becoming a Jedi Knight. Scientists at Harvard and MIT have discovered a way to bind photons together to form a new state of matter that behaves like Luke Skywalker’s weapon of choice, the lightsaber.

Harvard university physics professor, Mikhail Lukin, explains,

What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they act as though they have mass, and bind together to form molecules. It’s not an in-apt analogy to compare this to lightsabers. When these photons interact with each other, they’re pushing against and deflect each other. The physics of what’s happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies.

They’re still working on the THWWWOOOMMMBB sound and putting the technology into a hand-held weapon, but the prospect of lightsabers is coming from a galaxy not so far, far away anymore.

May the force be with you, science.

[Source : Smart Planet, The Guardian, IBT]