A beam of light is supposed to shine off into infinity , but when Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker whip out their lightsabers for some spark-flying action , the light blades extrude like stick deodorant and then just stop . It 's like they 're sticks of light-matter . Hollywood may have made that stuff up , but now , scientists at MIT and Harvard have actually made that stuff -- not enough for a lightsaber , only a subatomic smidgeon . But even that much is a big deal . Light-matter existed previously only in theory , but now , for the first time , it has been observed in reality , researchers from the Center for Ultracold Atoms say . To oversimplify things , we 'll say that photons are subatomic particles that make up light . They have no detectable mass the way most matter does , and usually , they do n't stick together . You can shoot two lasers at each other , and the photons will pass right through one another . But physicists Mikhail Lukin and Vladan Vuletic recently got them to stick together to form molecules . They published the results of their work in the science journal Nature this week . Scientists create mini-brains from stem cells . The newly created photon molecules do n't behave like traditional light , but more like a lightsaber , Lukin said . `` The physics of what 's happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies . '' But do n't picture yourself swashbuckling with a lightsaber just yet . As in the creation of pretty much all unusual matter , scientists have to produce extreme conditions in laboratories that ca n't exist naturally anywhere on Earth . They pumped atoms of rubidium , a kind of metal , into a vacuum chamber -- air would otherwise rapidly alter them . This created a metal cloud that they cooled down with lasers to about -450 degrees Fahrenheit , near what is called absolute zero . That makes atoms almost stand still . Then they fired photons into the atom cloud . The photons , elements of light , did not shoot through at the speed of light but acted a little like regular matter instead . They bumped into the atoms in a way similar to the way regular matter would . In the process , the photons slowed down enough to bump into each other and bond into molecules . It was a first . Scientists confirm new element 115 after atoms collide . Though that 's fascinating , it does n't make for a handy lightsaber . But it could help in the future development of super computers known as quantum computers , Lukin said . And with some work , scientists could make whole crystals out of light . So , if Darth Vader shows up with a lightsaber , your great-grandchildren may be able to throw photon rocks at him . But do n't count on it . Follow @ CNNLightYears on Twitter for more space and science news .
When Vader and Skywalker whip out lightsabers , the blades look like sticks of light-matter . Light usually wo n't stick together like regular matter , but scientists have made it happen . The new light-matter acts like it does in the movies , scientists say . But they have only created subatomic amounts of it , not nearly enough for a lightsaber .