'Scientists Design Tiny Brake to Quicken Communications'

article by KENNETH CHANG here.

To speed up communications, I.B.M. proposes slowing down light.

Writing in today's issue of the journal Nature, I.B.M. scientists at the T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., describe a tiny silicon device that can pull the reins on pulses of light, slowing them from their usual clip of 186,000 miles a second to a more leisurely 600 miles a second.

The slowing, by itself, is an unremarkable achievement. In 1999, researchers at Harvard reported that they were able to slow light much more drastically, to 38 miles per hour, and two years later, they and other scientists were able to bring a light pulse to a halt before releasing it back on its way.