Scientists use Light to Replicate Particles!!!!

[Meredith]

No wonder the replicators in trek light up, they use light to make stuff!!!!!


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/09/970918045841.htm

Scientists have long been able to convert matter to energy; the most spectacular example is a nuclear explosion, where a small amount of matter creates tremendous energy. Now physicists have succeeded in doing the opposite: converting energy in the form of light into matter --

The energy-to-matter conversion was made possible by the incredibly strong electromagnetic fields that the photon-photon collisions produced. Similar conditions are found only rarely in the universe; neutron stars, for instance, have incredibly strong magnetic fields, and some scientists believe that their surfaces are home to the same kind of light-to-matter interactions the team observed. This experiment marks the first time scientists have been able to create such strong fields using laser beams.

Hello Replicators!!!

 

[FredH]

The article appears to be from 1997.

 

[msbae]

I read that over a decade ago. The replicators as seen on Trek will never exist. Like all other Transporter-based technologies, this device violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

 

[Lindley]

I'm not convinced synthesizers are impossible though. Just churning out lots of a requested molecular structure on demand with no regard for higher-level organization.

 

[trekkiedane]

I read that over a decade ago. The replicators as seen on Trek will never exist. Like all other Transporter-based technologies, this device violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Indeed, that is why the Heisenberg Compensator (Michael Okuda 'invention'!) is such a hilarious piece of treknology