Scientists Slow Light Speed to 17m. Per Second 　　Scientists from an International Science Research Group have successfully slowed the speed of light to 17 meters per second, a speed that a strong bicyclist could easily exceed, said the British Nature magazine Thursday. 　　When light travels through empty space, it zips at a speed of 186,171 miles a second, the highest speed anything can attain, even in principle. A moonbeam takes only a little over one second to reach Earth. However Danish physicist Dr. lene Vestergaard Hau and her collaborators from the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, U.S. and Harvard University, managed to slow the light speed to 38 mph. 　　They first created an optical medium with its temperature　cooled to absolute zero, that is 459.67 degrees below zero. They then let the laggard laser moves through the high density group of atoms and reached the speed of 38 mph (17 meters per second). 　　This work will have many potential uses, not only a tool for　　studying a very peculiar state of matter but also in optical computers, high-speed switches, communications systems, television displays and night-vision devices. WorldNews 1999-02-22 Page3 Full Story in Chinese