7 Impossible Things Happening Right Now

7. Stopping Light In Its Tracks

Even if you don't know anything about science, you'll probably know that light is pretty quick. 299 792 458 m/s kind of quick, to be exact.

In a single minute, light could travel 20 times around the moon, which is why it's pretty mind-boggling that scientists have managed to stop it in its tracks, trapping it for a whole minute. For extra sci-fi effect, they trapped it inside a crystal.

This isn't just researchers mucking around with magic science because they can. The physicists, Professor Thomas Halfmann, Christian Hubrich and PhD student Georg Heinze think that this research could make it possible to store data in light beams, enabling them to be sent over long distances.

In a further, er, twist, a different group of researchers think that twisting light could dramatically improve data communications. The way our control of light is going, you'll probably be able to sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal by 2020.