Watch the World’s Brightest X-ray Laser Vaporize Water Droplets
The poor water droplets never stood a chance. Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab have aimed their…
Four Laser Beams Will Create the World's Most Powerful Fake Stars
Set lasers to star mode. The European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile now has four powerful laser…
Laser-Powered Balls Can Haul Heavy Loads Across Water
They don’t look much, but these little black balls harness the power of bright light to zip across the surface of…
The World's First Silicon-Based Laser Will Light Up Computing
As optical computing becomes a more realistic prospect, lasers will be required to connect components inside our…
Radar Scans Beamed to Earth via Laser Can See Ships in Almost Real-Time
This grainy black-and-white image may not look like much, but it’s a record-breaker. A radar scan acquired by satellite…
Optical Data Storage Squeezes 360TB on to a Quartz Disc—Forever
Want to make sure you back something up indefinitely? Then you could do worse than a digital data storage technique…
The World's Smallest Optical Switch Uses Just a Single Atom
Turning off a light just became a much smaller task. A team of researchers has developed the world’s smallest optical…
Watch What Happens When You Ignite Methane With a Laser
Setting fire to things isn’t in and of itself science. But if you record it using schlieren photography at 10,000…
A $60 Hack Can Fool the LIDAR Sensors Used on Most Self-Driving Cars
Many autonomous cars use LIDAR — a kind of laser-based radar — to sense the world around them. But now a researcher has…
Scientists Can Levitate Nanodiamonds in a Vacuum Using Laser Light
A team of researchers from the University of Rochester has managed to levitate nanodiamonds in a vacuum using laser…
Scientists Image a Shock Wave Pulsing Through Diamond for First Time
Even the hardest of materials react to immense pressures. In this image, x-ray imaging reveals how a laser-generated…
Shooting a Laser at a Planet, But Not To Blow it Up
This breathtaking photo shows the intense orange beam of a new 22-watt laser pointed at the planet Saturn. Wait, isn’t…
Inventor of the Laser Dies
Charles Townes, the physicist whose work would help lay the foundations for the development of the laser died today. He…
This Satellite Image Was Beamed 22,000 Miles Across Space By Laser
This may look like a fairly normal satellite image of Berlin, but it holds a rather special secret: it's the first…
China Says It Has a Laser Gun For Blasting Drones Out of the Sky
Unlicensed drones spying on China better watch out because the People's Republic reportedly has a super terrifying…
Making Stars With Lasers Looks Like Tron Made Real
Not how to destroy an entire planet, but how humans are able to create a star—with the help of a laser tuned to 589.2…
I can't take my eyes off this ultra-accurate laser cutter
It's like watching a ballerina dance. It's like seeing an invisible hold never let go. It's a multi-axis laser cutter…
Death laser ray spider-bot bring us one step closer to the apocalypse
From the DIY Laser Guy: "I present my most terrifying laser creation as of yet... the remote controlled death ray drone…
This Stealth Camera Captures Images in Almost Complete Darkness
If you thought low-light photography was coming on in leaps and bounds, you ain't seen nothin' yet. This new camera,…
See how a lost city was rediscovered with lasers from the sky
This ten-minute video details the rediscovery of Mahendraparvata, a lost city that once thrived in the mountains of…