While the speed of light is something of a limit – we can’t make light speed up to carry more information – we can compact the amount of information traveling at a time. It’s this capability that a research group at Cornell University has used to create a ‘time lens.’

A time lens is essentially like an optical lens. An optical lens can deflect a light beam into a much smaller area of space; a time lens deflects a section of a light beam into a smaller chunk of time. [Reference: New Scientist]

This capability may have wide application for fiber optic communication and optical computers.