How Fast Is Light in BEC?

In 1999, physicists slowed light to just 17 m/s through an ultracold Bose-Einstein condensate — walking pace, no faster than a flamingo flying. Lene Hau's experiment won her a Nobel Prize and opened up new ways to store and manipulate information using photons.

Lene Hau slowed light to walking pace in 1999 — a feat that opened entirely new fields of optical computing.

• Same speed as a flamingo flying
• Light slowed to walking pace — Nobel 2001