- On this week's episode of Science and Star Wars ... May the force be with you, Taylor Gray. Light sabers. (dynamic music) Hello, and welcome to Science and Star Wars, where we explore how close real world science has come to our favorite Star Wars technology. I'm Anthony Carboni, and joining me on the show is my friend here. - [Watson] Hello, my name is Watson. - And today, we're talking about light sabers. As Obi Wan described them ... - Elegant weapon for a more civilized age. - And by civilized, Obi Wan meant mess some stuff up real bad. (screaming) Watson, what can you tell us about light sabers? - [Watson] After reading ever Star Wars film script, and the starwars.com data bank, I have learned the light saber is a complex instrument consisting of a pommel cap, hand grip, control module, main hilt, focusing lens, and blade emitter, with an energy core powered by a kyber crystal. - Kyber crystal actually power both light sabers and the Death Star. It's what makes them different from something like a blaster. The closest thing we have in the real world to a light saber right now is plasma. And in order to achieve that, you'll need a plasma arc welder. But still, light sabers aren't real. We would also need ... (light sabers waving) But that doesn't mean all hope is lost, no. In fact, at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California there is a laser that can produce temperatures close to the center of the sun. - It provides about 100 times the power of the entire electrical grid of the world. And it all concentrates then in a tiny little spot for a billionth of a second, creating incredible temperatures and pressures, which enables us to study high energy density physics that we use to bring us future solutions to the energy problem of the world. - [Anthony] And at IBM research, Zurich, they're floating plasma in the air. - What's very intense of our laser is that we can focus this whole energy within 150 femtoseconds, so this is less than a millionth of a millionth of a second. And this is what makes this system very bright and very intense. And then we can create so-called quantum fluid. And with this quantum fluid we can study this quantum mechanical applications for future computings. - Now, surprisingly, if you call the lab in Zurich and request to use their very expensive laser, but don't tell them why, they tell you no! - I wonder why. - Taylor, you are Ezra Bridger on Rebels. You have a light saber. - I've had two. Right now, I've got a green one. - Green is good. Watson, what color light saber would I have? - [Watson] Based on my analysis of Star Wars materials, and cross-referencing your social media handle for personality insights, your light saber color would be green. - [Anthony] Oh! - [Ezra] Look at that! - Twinsies! In the real world, light sabers come in one color: blinding white hot. What we're gonna do is make a thermic lance. So we've got a carbon steel tube here, we have some steel wool, and a tank of oxygen. We're gonna run oxygen through this tube, and then use the steel wool as an igniter. - [Ezra] There's iron flecks in the steel wool. And when oxygen hits it, you get iron oxide. That is oxidation. - Yes! It creates a lot of energy in the form of heat, which means we are going to create a 2,000-degree celsius plasma blade. Okay, now this is a room to create plasma. We got Allen Pan with us. You're gonna be helping us build some of our experiments for the show. And you made a thermic lance light saber like this before. - Yeah, I did, but mine was smaller and hip mounted. It looks like yours is gonna be a lot more powerful. - Dude, it feels legit. It looks legit. Let's see what it does. - All right, let's light this candle. I'm gonna ignite our steel wool. We're gonna start the oxygen flowing through that. - [Taylor] Let's do it. So what we have is a 100 pound, double-pane steel fire door. Yeah! - [Taylor] Yeah, we're through! - Woo! Ah, Taylor, it looks so rad!. - [Taylor] I can feel the sparks. - Those are just your midichlorians, Taylor. Get us through that door, Taylor! (yelling) - Wow! - Oh, dude! - Look at this. - You can see the burning and the scarring and the oxidation. You can feel the heat coming off it still. - That's full Qui-Gon. - Full Qui-Gon! That is awesome! Taylor Gray, I have to ask you, did we build a light saber today? - We built a very successful light saber. That was unbelievable. - Awesome, man. Thank you so much for being here. - Thanks for having me. - And remember, we are just getting started. We have more here for you every single week, and more science for you at IBM.com/starwars. - Look at that. Dude, that's insane.