On July 26, 2013 (June 19, 2013 in the lunar calendar), German scientists successfully allowed light to stay for 60 seconds. Scientists successfully stopped light for 60 seconds. The British Physical Science News website reported on July 26, 2013 that researchers at the University of Darmstadt in Germany successfully stopped light and stored it for 60 seconds. In a research report published in the American journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers introduced their technology and its possible future applications. In 1999, a team of researchers reduced the speed of light to just 17 meters per second. In 2001, another group of researchers managed to stop the light, but only for a fraction of a second. A few months later, another group of researchers extended the time the light stayed on to 16 seconds. This time, German researchers let the light stay for a full minute. Intercepting, storing and releasing light is an important step in the development of quantum repeaters. Quantum repeaters are an important part of future quantum computers. The light carrying data must be stored for a certain period of time before being transmitted to its destination based on the data it carries. To intercept and store light, researchers first use a crystal that is usually unable to transmit light at all. Then reduce it to a very low temperature, and then illuminate it with a laser to form a quantum superposition, allowing light of a certain band to pass through. Then they let another laser light pass through the now transparent crystal, while making the crystal lose its transparency, intercepting the laser light inside the crystal. The researchers found that they were able to keep light inside the crystal for 60 seconds. Using the same technology, researchers were able to keep a specific type of light for 60 seconds. It's like letting a beam of light enter a dark room through one door, then closing the door, and a minute later opening the opposite door to let the light out. The researchers said their findings suggest that using other crystals may extend the time the light stays. For their technology to be applied to real-world computers, researchers also need to find a way to store and transmit light at room temperature.