Light's Most Exotic Trick Yet: So Fast it Goes ... Backwards?

Too cool for words. But, don't try this at home, kids - you might suddenly vanish and end up in next week, or something...

In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers at the University of Rochester have published a paper today in Science on how they've gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. As if to defy common sense, the backward-moving pulse of light travels faster than light. Confused? You're not alone.

Read the astonishing rest here.

Really, slowing light down to plain ole' walking speed is so "old skool." Here's a great short story about what doing it does to society.

(H-T: Craftwork of a Jewitch)