21st-century science has all the necessary principles to create a working Star Wars lightsaber, but not the know-how.
A few years ago, Swiss fusion physicist Federico Felici explained in detail to The Science Museum blog how hot plasma contorted into an elongated, 3,100-degree Fahrenheit toroidal cylinder (think of a doughnut stretched into a long tube) by powerful magnets and contained in an insulated handle could make a working lightsaber.
