Scientists discover new property of light.

LiveScience web-site reports that scientists at Yale Univ. have discovered a hitherto unknown property of light, namely, that in certain situations it can exert a repulsive force. The scientists report that they can control this property and that as a result its possible that their research could lead to new nano-devices using light rather than electricity.

Previously, the scientists discovered that light can act as an attractive force and be ued to manipulate celectronic components, acting on tiny switches. Unlike the 'push' effect of light (e.g. the sun's effect on asteroids) which acts perpendicular to a surface, the newly discovered forces act at right angles from the direction of travel.

The benefits of using light instead of electricity is that the signal does not deteriorate as much, leading to much greater efficiency.

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