Scientists said yesterday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store an image. Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light.

Japanese researchers have demonstrated laser communications chips capable of transfering information through optical fibers at a record 25 gigabits per second, a development that could lead to the first petaflop-class supercomputer by 2010.

Light can be turned into a glowing stream of liquid that splits into droplets and splatters off surfaces just like water. The researchers who've worked out how to do this say "liquid light" would be the ideal lifeblood for optical computing, where chips send light around optical "circuits" to process data.

Advanced optics such as lasers, crystals and holograms may work in concert with quantum theory to revolutionize computers in this century, promising tremendous speed and abilities that exceed the human brain, according to Purdue University Physics Professor David D. Nolte.

A switch that uses one light beam to turn on another will pave the way for superfast communications systems. Japanese scientists say their \"optical transistor\" could eventually lead to all-optical networks that will dramatically improve the speed of Internet connections.

NASA researchers have made significant advances in optical computing that will exponentially increase processor and bandwidth speeds.