DARPA has asked a lot from the science and tech communities, requesting everything from flying cars to weather manipulation to suspended animation. Now they’ve asked UC Santa Cruz researchers to slow down the speed of light, and in a breakthrough that could reshape optical communications, researchers have done exactly that.

Built into a silicon chip, the small optical device has slowed the speed of light by a factor of 1,200 in the lab, in conditions that were previously unthinkable — that is, under normal conditions. “Slow light,” as it’s known, has been produced before, but usually it requires special, lab-induced conditions – often at very low temperatures – that were too complicated for practical use. The UC Santa Cruz team designed their device to work at room temperature and to be produceable in market quantities.