We all know the speed of light is universal. You can slow it down a bit by passing light through selected materials in a lab, but you can't affect its velocity in free space. You can't make it speed up. And you certainly can't make it go backwards.
The science gang at University of Central Florida says, "Yes, you can."
We're far from knowing all the applications of this yet, but maybe that Star Trek faster-then-light "subspace" communication system? Wouldn't it be cool if we could do that in regular space, keeping contact with future starships traveling near light speed?
(I know, getting to a significant fraction of light speed is a long way off. But I've been to the DARPA 100-year Starship conference and listened to very smart people who are sure it can be done, and in more ways than one.)
In the meantime, this could bring breakthroughs in communications and a lot of other fields. Also, it's just cool.
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