As if lasers needed a public image overhaul! They’ve suddenly got cooler, now that a Michigan university professor is building only a friggin’ missile-blocking laser small enough to be affixed to US Army helicopters.
While the lasers won’t physically hurtle them off in another direction, the wavelengths of heat will ensure the missile follows the laser, and not hit the helicopter. Wired, who spoke to its inventor Professor Mohammed Islam about the Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Laser prototype, commented that it’s “the size of a DVD player.”
Islam has already receiving investment to the tune of a million smackaroos from Darpa and the Army. [Wired]
