A flash of light just redefined what we know about matter

A flash of light just redefined what we know about matter

A flash of light hits a simple iron crystal. In the space of a trillionth of a second, its magnetic behavior shifts, as if the solid briefly becomes something else. You might feel a jolt of hope reading that. If light can change matter this cleanly, your phone, your laptop, even a future medical device could run cooler and faster. That is the promise behind a study from the University of Konstanz, where physicists led by Davide Bossini showed ho…