Slowing down light may have many practical uses in communications, signal processing, television displays and night-vision devices.

BBC: A Bose-Einstein condensate: It slows down light

After crawling through a small, pitch-black hole in the debris, making their way past sharp metal parts, pieces of office paper, and pulverized concrete, they use listening devices and night-vision cameras to search for anyone alive.

CNN: workers

For those late-night shoppers hoping these devices would be the miracle ride to lean and mean, Hirsh has this dose of reality: " If you take diet out of the picture, to lose one pound of fat, the average (160-pound person) would need one to nine months" (of working out regularly) on almost all of the devices they tested.

CNN: Recession-proof your fitness resolutions