Every kid who grew up watching Star Wars had their own plastic lightsabers and hoped of one day being able to use a real lightsaber. With Star Wars 7 coming out in a matter of weeks, lightsabers have been on my mind and got me wondering if lightsabers have been developed and/or if there is a possibility they will be made. Well, as of now there are no lightsabers that have been made, but there is progress being made in this field.
Image courtesy of http://img10.deviantart.net/d59e/i/2011/299/4/0/kalippe_lightsaber_by_jnetrocks-d4dyzpo.jpg
The first website I visited, physics.org, ruled out the idea of producing lightsabers for many reasons. The website came in with the perspective that the lightsaber blade would need to be produced by lasers which is where they ran into problems. One, there would be no way to stop the laser just a few feet away from the handle of the lightsaber while still allowing the blade to be used as a deadly laser. Second, the materials you would need and the cooling system that would need to be in the handle are too much for a person to carry around with them. Third, the amount of energy required for the laser would be too much for a battery-powered lightsaber, so you would need to be plugged in and the lightsaber would then be impractical. Fourth, your opponent could shield themselves from the laser with a mirror and reflect the laser back on you. The lasers would also pass through each other during a duel which would make the weapons less exciting. Finally, you could not visibly see the laser from a side perspective and the lasers would also be noiseless, making the visual and audio effects much less appealing.
This is what real life lightsabers currently look like. Image courtesy of http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/28/article-0-1A09D8CD000005DC-260_634x351.jpg
After consulting with other sources, it seems as if we are very close to developing a real life lightsaber. Professors from MIT, Harvard, and other US universities collaborated to discover that binding photons together in a new form might be the key to creating a lightsaber. Mikhail Lukin from Harvard told The Guardian, ” What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they act as though they have mass, and bind together to form molecules.” He does go on to explain that the molecules are deflecting one another and the way they behave is very similar to what is seen in the movies. The National Institute of Science and Technology along with the University of Maryland have made another breakthrough regarding the construction of lightsabers. By tweaking the binding process, they were able to have photons side by side and a specific distance away from each other which could help in the construction of a lightsaber. The problem lies in establishing the extreme environmental conditions to bind the photons and being able to sensor the capacity of the light in order to create a “standard candle” for the blade.
To summarize, a legitimate lightsaber has not been created up to this point but breakthroughs are being made. The idea might be a bit far-fetched and physicists are still skeptical of the idea, but the possibility of creating a real life lightsaber still remains.
Sources Used:
http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=59
http://www.zdnet.com/article/scientists-make-the-star-wars-lightsaber-possible/
Adam, lightsabers are definitely seen as a dangerous weapon. I do not believe anyone has intentions on creating lightsabers and selling them to the public. The costs would most likely be through the roof and there would be no practical use for a lightsaber in society. I believe people only want to create lightsabers for the curiosity factor.
As a Star Wars fan, I was intrigued by your post. My friends and I often had toy lightsaber battles at our houses, and we dreamed of using a real one someday. I am excited to see that there are being steps taken in the right direction to create a real lightsaber. However I feel that it would be very unsafe to have a real one because they are extremely dangerous. It would be very hard to get the beam to stop where you want the sword to stop, and I believe that this is the biggest problem with the lightsaber as of now. However I still have hopes that one day I will hold a real lightsaber. I found this video about making lighsabers in real life:
Lightsaber Video
This was a really cool and interesting post! I’m always intrigued in finding out if there is real science involved in sci-fi creations. I found an interview where Bill Nye explained his take on the possibility of light sabers- he didn’t rule the idea out entirely! Check it out here: http://nerdist.com/bill-nye-explains-the-scientific-feasibility-of-lightsabers-jurassic-park-more/
Like you, I am a big star wars fan myself and grew up playing with a bunch of those plastic lightsabers, and have always been curious as to the possibilities behind the construction of an actual lightsaber. At the beginning of your blog I was discouraged to hear that researchers had ruled out the possibility of the construction of a real lightsaber so I checked out the link myself. I was pleased to find that some researches are still trying and that they still believe the creation of a lightsaber to be within reach. Overall, very creative and original blog.