Light ties itself in knots - spontaneously

It’s not only possible to get light to tie itself in knots: given the right conditions, it will do so spontaneously, according to a paper published last week in Nature. El Reg has no possible hope of fully understanding this paper (published in full, an emerging trend we welcome), but one really interesting idea is right there …

[stuartnz]

Will I be first?

To throw in the appropriate HHGTTG reference - "In Relativity, Matter tells Space how to curve, and Space tells

Matter how to move. The Heart of Gold told space to get knotted," since I don't have a whelk's chance in a supernova of understanding the science behind knotted light.

[Esskay]

But...

What's a whelk got to do with a supernova?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: But...

It doesn't stand a chance in one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: But...

... and as it heads into the abyss will probably be thinking "Oh no, not again."

[Steve Knox]

Re: But...

So why a welk particularly?

[Oolons]

Re: But...

So why a whelk particularly? .... 42!

[Nick Ryan]

Re: But...

So why a welk particularly?

Because the use of butterflies and chaos is so last century?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: But...

"So why a welk particularly?"

It was named Lawrence...

[Herby]

Explaination: Simple

It is all done with mirrors.

[Gavin King]

Re: Explaination: Simple

And smoke. Must remember the smoke.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I'll be knotted

I understand knot a word.

[6 inches long, handle.]

RNG!

"Our models suggest that you have to get the key parameters of the light in a certain range before you can easily tie the light in knots but once you do, the knots are virtually guaranteed … we can’t predict exactly where they will form."

Light as random number generator! :)

[Anonymous Coward]

ST-TOS

It's light Jim, but not as we know it.

[logic]

VERY significant

At the time of the "Big Bang" reality was radiation, EM and only EM. Then particles formed - like a condensate?

This knot phenomena of light may have direct relevance to the nature and relationship of EM and matter. For what is matter but knots of EM (light). This could be a route to an understanding of a fundamental piece of physics.

[Elmer Phud]

Re: VERY significant

So, the Big Bang was when God fell flat on his/her/whatever face due to shoelaces knotted together?

Which means the first sound was that of a cartoon pratfall.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: VERY significant

"Which means the first sound was that of a cartoon pratfall."

Quickly followed by a 'shit, me nose!'

[Trygve Henriksen]

Re: VERY significant

*Sigh*

There was no 'big bang' at the beginning.

First there was the counting...

"one, two, three, four..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions_of_the_Discworld#The_Listening_Monks

[Dan Paul]

Re: VERY significant... Agreed, this helps to explain "Wavicles"

Seems to have been quite a few people saying that light acts like a wave but also like a particle.

The change in amplitude along the lengthwise axis accounts for the wave portion and the individual "knots" account for the particle portion.

[John Pattenden]

convoluted string theory?

See title.

[Mystic Megabyte]

Far out

"including superfluids and trapped matter waves.”

So the inner regions of the Sun might be a Rose garden of luminous flowers.

Not forgetting the luminous Gardener.

Sorry but Tuesday is my day for shouting at pigeons.

[Jon Double Nice]

LASER SHOELACES!

thats what the article says to me

[PeterM42]

I have always believed.....

...as a target pistol shooter, that light does NOT travel in straight lines.

Thank you scientists for proving me right. Now I have a scientific excuse for my poor shooting.

[Efros]

Light Sabre

At last!

[Mister_C]

Re: Light Sabre

Sorry, light crochet hook is more likely

[AlgernonFlowers4]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I once dreamt that I was an iBod device with a hard light projector connected to a cloud based server running a copy of my last brain dump. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Open your eyes

[Vic]

Re: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

> I once dreamt that I was an iBod device with a hard light projector

Haven't we already got one AManFromMars ?

Vic.

[AlgernonFlowers4]

Re: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

>Haven't we already got one AManFromMars?

MenFromMars have advanced technology such as mobile hard knotted light holgramatic projectors, the Holly Hop drive, whereas MenFromEarth are still peeling their own potatoes with their metal knives, boiling them for twenty of their minutes, then smashing them all to bits!

[Dan 55]

Slowly raises hand at the back of the class

Sir, has this got anything to do with Young's double-slit experiment?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: Slowly raises hand at the back of the class

Sir(i) has been banned from answering that question.

[Stoneshop]

Re: Slowly raises hand at the back of the class

Sir(i) has been banned from answering that question.

As far as I can tell, that only concerned single-slit "experiments".

Although a triple-breasted whore might well have a double slit, who knows.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: Slowly raises hand at the back of the class

Thanks Stoneshop, there's a stack of labels over there that need labelling, in the drawer marked labels :)

[Evil Auditor]

Yes, but...

...can it knit the emperor's clothes?

[skellious]

Utter rubberish!

They've just taken photos of rubber bands! Admit it! You had an office rubber band fight and snapped the results!

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: Utter rubberish!

+1 for the pun

[Arachnoid]

So does this mean that light is attracted to itself and it so does it affects more often in places like Brighton

[David Pollard]

Ball lightning

Might this hold a clue as to how the energy is stored when ball lightning occurs?

[D@v3]

I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE

[that is all]