But Really...

What's all that impressive about making a pulse of light disappear in a cloud whose molecules vibrate in quantum tandem and then reappear somewhere else? Not much to write home about, really, it's more... just... "odd"...

"It's odd," says atomic physicist Lene Hau, the team's leader. "We can actually revive the light pulse and send it back on its way as if nothing had happened." Besides being a neat quantum game of catch, Hau speculates that the technique may someday be used in optical communications or ultraprecise navigation systems.

Or... Huge Lockheed Martin R&D contracts and planetary-enslaving death-rays, but what's the difference?