this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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xkcd #3238: Soniferous Aether

Title text:

Imagine you could ride alongside a sound wave. It would probably be pretty cool, right? We're putting in a departmental budget request to buy a really fast plane so we can check it out.

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3238/

explainxkcd for #3238

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[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Edit wait I meant to post this to the other dude, sry. I'm just gonna literally double down.

In 1999, she led a Harvard University team who, by use of a Bose–Einstein condensate, succeeded in slowing a beam of light to about 17 metres per second, and, in 2001, was able to stop a beam completely.[2] Later work based on these experiments led to the transfer of light to matter, then from matter back into light,[3] a process with important implications for quantum encryption and quantum computing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lene_Hau