00:00Physicists just watched something move faster than light.
00:02And no, physics isn't broken.
00:04Scientists fired a pulse of laser light across a special material's surface.
00:08Within this material, light acts as a combination light and sound wave.
00:12At certain points in those waves, empty vortexes of darkness can form.
00:15And these tiny print pricks of darkness appeared to zip across the surface faster than light speed.
00:20Which sounds like we broke physics.
00:22Except we didn't, because nothing physical was actually traveling faster than light.
00:26What moved was a hole in the light wave, a point of complete darkness.
00:29When a light pulse sweeps across a surface at an angle, the dark spot where light hasn't reached yet can
00:34appear to move incredibly fast.
00:36So fast that it's faster than light.
00:38But here's the trick.
00:39The dark spot isn't an object.
00:41It's just the absence of light within a light wave.
00:43It's like shining a laser pointer across the moon.
00:46The dot can sweep across the lunar surface faster than light could travel between two points there.
00:50But no particle is actually making that journey.
00:53Einstein's speed limit still stands.
00:55Nothing with mass can outrun light.
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