In late September we reported the "faster than the speed of light" claim from CERN researchers working on the OPERA project.

An international team of scientists from the CERN particle research center have recorded sub-atomic particles traveling faster than the speed of light. Since Albert Einstein first proposed the speed of light is a "cosmic constant", and that nothing in the universe can travel faster, in his theory of special relativity - it has become the standard model of physics.

When one cloud of gas meets another, they normally pass right through each other. But now, MIT physicists have created clouds of ultracold gases that bounce off each other like bowling balls, even though they are a million times thinner than air — the first time that such impenetrable gases have been observed.

Dr. Edward Moses spells out the energy demands for a growing population with growing energy needs and then explains how his work with fusion energy at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) can address this problem. The video below is just a highlight of this very interesting 90 minute lecture.

That quote comes from the CERN twitter feed, (http://twitter.com/cern) - and captures the excitement of the morning.

Using abstract mathematics and holograms, a team of physicists working at the universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Southampton, have been able to produce knotted optical vortices.

Understanding how to control light in this way has important implications for laser technology used in wide a range of industries.