Dan Shafer's Blog

I find this sort of thing absolutely fascinating and yet not the least unexpected. We've known for more than 100 years that the Universe is really made up only of energy, that what we call "matter" is nothing more than energy whose vibrations fall within the range of what we can detect with our senses or measure with instruments that are extensions of our senses. It is, in a phrase, energy all the way down (and up, for that matter).

But this report of a series of experiments led by University of Michigan researcher Nicholas Kotov brings in another whole dimension defining the connection and intersection of these two seemingly disparate, cosmologically identical states of energy. The team were so surprised by their initial discovery that they spent the next three and one-half years confirming it and trying to understand it. "To be honest, it took us three and a half years to really figure out how photons of light can lead to such a remarkable change in rigid structures a thousand times bigger than molecules," Kotov said.

Kotov and his team published their findings in the March 17 issue of the esteemed Journal Science. (You can read the original by going to Science and searching for Kotov. It requires a free registration to access the content but if you're interested in science, it's well worth it.)