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November 28, 2011

Light created from nothing!

The dynamic Casimir effect has finally been proven true after more than 40 years since it was predicted. A team of scientist in Sweden lead by Chris Wilson are the ones that made it possible. Wilson said that "they were very happy when it worked" and I'm not surprised.

How'd they do it? Well first, they got a SQUID, or Superconducting Quantum Interface Device, and made it move at the speed of light in a vacuum. The rapid movement of the SQUID starts transferring its kinetic energy to virtual particles. What did this yield? Photons, also know as light started appearing, therefore proving that space is not empty, even though it is a vacuum.

That being said, I don't think we're gonna have any light sources made out of virtual photons any time soon, because Wilson and the team aren't yet sure as to how many "real" photons they can get get out of the "virtual" ones.

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