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"...being predictive, being right about the future, is not the point of any given story or novel. The point is about exploring as wide a range of possibilities as possible."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Super-Photon | ||
| Three photons in one. |
At this point in the novel, the Thessians struck with a beam of pure silvery light that tore a hundred feet of pure cosmium off the nose of our hero's ship? What is this incredible weapon?
| "...do you know what that weapon is, Morey?" "Got some readings on it with the Banderlog's instruments, and I think I do. Twin-ray is right," replied Morley. "Hmhm - so I think. It's a super-photon. What they do is use a field somewhat similar to the field we use in making cosmium, except that in theirs, instead of the photons lying side by side, they slide into one another, compounding. They evidently get three photons to go into one. Now, as we know, that size photon doesn't exist for the excellent reason that it can't in this space. Space closes in about it. Therefore they have a projected field to accompany it that tends to open out space - and they are using that, not the attractive ray, on us now. The result is that for a distnce not too great, the triple-ray exists in normal space - then goes into another. Now the question is how can we stop it? I have no idea - have you any?" "Yes, but my idea can't exist in this space either," grinned Morey. |
| Technovelgy from Invaders From The Infinite,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Experimental Publishing Co. in 1932 Additional resources -
|
The term "super-photon" is in common use in physics today, but I can't find an earlier reference to this term than Campbell's. The idea of that light can be treated as packets or discrete quanta of energy dates from Einstein's treatment of the photoelectric effect in 1905; I'm not sure when the word "photon" was created.
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Super-Photon-related
news articles:
- Super-Photons Used For Good, Not Evil
| 'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC) |
| Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly |
| Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer |
| Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
