"Mind-bending physics experiments recreate double-slit and benefit legged robots with cold exposure"

Scientists have created an interference pattern in time by shining a "pump" laser pulse at a screen coated in indium tin oxide (ITO), the material found in most phone screens. The light from the laser changed the properties of the electrons within the material so that the ITO reflected light like a mirror. A subsequent "probe" laser beam hitting the ITO screen would then see this temporary change in optical properties as a slit in time just a few hundred femtoseconds long. The findings pave the way for advances in analog computers that manipulate data imprinted on beams of light instead of digital bits and deepen our understanding of the fundamental nature of light and its interactions with materials.