About 12 years ago, the world of physics was abuzz with the news that researchers led by Lene Hau had slowed down the speed of light from 186,282 miles a second to about the speed of grandma on the highway (38 miles an hour).
Now we have news that researchers in Australia are using silicon photonic crystals to slow down light to generate individual pairs of photons.
But then again perhaps the market analysis and investment folks are not the only ones engaged in pointlessly hyping nanotechnology. It’s being given credit for a development that apparently is more within the field of photonics than nanotechnology, and is being plastered all over Twitter like the biggest breakthrough in nanotechnology since…well, ever.
Dexter Johnson is a contributing editor at IEEE Spectrum, with a focus on nanotechnology.