Light bends matter, surprising scientists

Discovery so unexpected, researchers were skeptical of their own results

By Clara Moskowitz
updated 2:54 p.m. ET, Wed., March. 24, 2010

Light can twist matter, according to a new study that observed ribbons of nanoparticles twisting in response to light.

Scientists knew matter can cause light to bend — prisms and glasses prove this easily enough. But the reverse phenomenon was not shown to occur until recently.

The researchers assembled strings of nanoparticles, which are tiny clumps of matter on the scale of nanometers (one nanometer is one billionth of a meter). In a darkened lab, the scientists linked nanoparticles together into ribbons. At first the nano ribbons were flat, but when a light was shone on them, they curled up into spirals.
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The discovery was so novel, the researchers were skeptical of their own results at first.

More:www.msnbc.msn.com...
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[edit on Mon Mar 29 2010 by Jbird]

this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

Originally posted by fnord
this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

It has mass and is more solid than the nanoparticles.

Originally posted by fnord
this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

Did you even read the article? It has nothing to do with mass. If your going to comment you should at least read the material you are commenting on, or at least not just make stuff up.

"The surface of the nanoparticles in this experiment were made of cadmium sulfide. To begin with, they had a slightly negative electromagnetic charge. But when photons, or particles of light, hit the nanoparticles, their energy excited electrons on the nanoparticles, causing chemical reactions that made them even more negatively charged. Since two negative charges repel each other, the nanoparticles began to repel more strongly.

"What's happening is a layer of nanoparticles starts repulsing from the others, so it creates mechanical stress, and in order to release this stress the ribbon twists itself," Kotov told LiveScience. "It's very much like what's happening when you stretch a Christmas ribbon on a gift box and from the flat ribbon it becomes a spiral."

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[edit on Mon Mar 29 2010 by Jbird]

For us completely non-scientific laymen, can anyone explain some implications this might have? Including any potential uses it might have? I read it, I just didn't get it

reply to post by Alexander_Supertramp


(Like I have said many times) You can use light to make a time machine. The real question is how. But ,fortunately for me, nobody knows. RATHER than me of course.

I had trouble finding the article with the original link posted. Here is a link I found.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Maybe my idea I had years ago about energy in the form of light after the big bang cooling off and forming matter by looping around on itself wasn't so crazy after all. Energy and matter would be the same thing but in a slightly different form but still related to each other in the equation E=mc squared.

I'm not clear on what new materials could result from the discovery.

Strange, now the original link goes to the same place. I'm not sure what happened there the first time I clicked.

[edit on 24-3-2010 by orionthehunter]

Spirals? Does it have anything to do with the golden mean ratio? 1.618 will make a non-collapsing spiral, which in nature holds charge.

Is this the case?

Originally posted by fnord
this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

What's it like?

I'd really like to know.

New limit placed on photon charge

www.physorg.com...
Could light be charged matter amplification.

www.ncts.ncku.edu.tw...
Could this lead to photonic computer systems? Manipulating matter using light? Sending information through light into crystals. Invisibility, or time travel.

Matter held together by light

I wonder if this means matter is actually a lower frequency of light itself.

www.youtube.com...

Electrical and magnetic fields holding matter together?

If this is true, we probably only see one small speck of reality. Like a light show on a stage.

We might be able to communicate with other beings living in another spectrum or range of light that we cannot see, or perhaps they allready are in ways we didn't realise until now. Through energy and light.

Radio frequency is so low they cannot even pick it up. like throwing a pebble in the sand and expecting to make a sound on a beach.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by DarkCyrus]

Originally posted by Hedera Helix

Originally posted by fnord
this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

It has mass and is more solid than the nanoparticles.

The Universe is a gigantic quantum computer.

WHAT is the universe made of? Matter or energy? Particles or strings? According to physicist Vlatko Vedral's appealing new book, it is made, at bottom, of information.

At this smallest of scales, however, the universe is governed by the famously weird laws of quantum mechanics. Computers that operate using quantum bits (or qubits), such as those stored on individual electrons, inherit this weirdness: bits can read 0 and 1 simultaneously, and quantum computers can solve problems classical computers cannot.

Source: Culture lab article

I'm not really a physicist, but I believe that light is simply supercharged matter. That is, a photon is a supercharged particle of matter. Hence I believe that if you travel at the speed of light, you become light. It's not so much that you have enough energy to travel that fast and it turns you into light, it's a matter of your atoms becoming so supercharged that they become photons and you essentially are light, and able to move at the speed at which photons travel (the speed of light).

This, to me, explains why photons have the properties of both a particle and a wave. It is not simply "both" of them, it is something else entirely. What was once a particle became a "wave" of light, an entirely different phenomenon: photons.

Originally posted by Alexander_Supertramp
For us completely non-scientific laymen, can anyone explain some implications this might have? Including any potential uses it might have? I read it, I just didn't get it

Um...Photo Perm! Want curly hair?

Interesting stuff, but minute amounts of energy involved no?
Experiments on a larger scale (aka Manufacturing) might be interesting.

tell me whats so noval about light being able to affect matter come one guys .
light = energy put that energy into matter you will get a reaction.
realy they were surprised that light effected the nano stuff man these guys are slow.
after all why do you think it feals hotter in the sun then under a tree unless the light is effecting your matter .
its called radiated energy
now ovesly there are different types of energy in light so the matter may react with one type and not another

Might this also explain why light causes certain materials to fade after long term exposure? Also, wouldn't it be interesting to find that there really is no "entropy" per se - just light bombardment imbuing it with a negative charge until it slowly flies apart?

[edit on 25-3-2010 by standingwest]

Originally posted by garritynet

Originally posted by fnord
this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

Did you even read the article? It has nothing to do with mass. If your going to comment you should at least read the material you are commenting on, or at least not just make stuff up.


"The surface of the nanoparticles in this experiment were made of cadmium sulfide. To begin with, they had a slightly negative electromagnetic charge. But when photons, or particles of light, hit the nanoparticles, their energy excited electrons on the nanoparticles, causing chemical reactions that made them even more negatively charged. Since two negative charges repel each other, the nanoparticles began to repel more strongly.

"What's happening is a layer of nanoparticles starts repulsing from the others, so it creates mechanical stress, and in order to release this stress the ribbon twists itself," Kotov told LiveScience. "It's very much like what's happening when you stretch a Christmas ribbon on a gift box and from the flat ribbon it becomes a spiral."

So it was a chemical reaction rather than an interaction of light and matter acting as two agents of mass upon each other? Could they not explain the chemical reaction? I will be looking into this more.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by SmokeandShadow]

reply to post by xxcalbier


Well I think it's the UV rays or somthing that affect your skin, not the light.

Originally posted by Hedera Helix

Originally posted by fnord
this basically proves that light indeed has mass, but, it could only have mass when observed.

It has mass and is more solid than the nanoparticles.

If it has mass, can we add it to the periodic table of elements?

Cool find OP!

S&F

UV's are a component of light, though.