What is the slowest thing on Earth?
In the words of the infamous villain, Dr. Evil: “Lasers.”
Lasers focus a narrow, directed beam of light on a specific spot, making them a great tool for cutting, burning, welding – or in the case of Dr. Evil, shooting enemies from atop a shark. These activities all produce or require heat. Laser beams travel at the speed of light, more than 670 million miles per hour, making them the fastest thing in the universe.
So how does a laser produce the slowest thing on Earth?
First, it’s important to understand the relationship between an object’s temperature and its speed. The hotter something is, the more energy it has and the faster it moves. Even things that appear to be perfectly still – say, a pen or your notebook – are not. On a microscopic level, the particles they’re made of are movin...