Like a whirlpool, a new light-based communication tool carries data in a swift, circular motion. Described in a recent study, the optics advancement could become a central component of next generation computers designed to handle society’s growing demand for information sharing. It may also be a salve to those fretting over the predicted end of Moore’s Law, the idea that researchers will find new ways to continue making computers smaller, faster and cheaper. The new laser, which uses a light manipulation technique called orbital angular momentum, distributes the travelling laser light in a corkscrew pattern with a vortex at the center. Because this is able to encode information into different vortex twists, it is able to carry 10 times the amount of information that conventional linear lasers do. http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2016/07/034.html http://www.wired.co.uk/article/vortex-laser-could-save-moores-law