LASERS

Please Don’t Let Laser-Based Instruments Catch On

Last night here in NYC, British pop singer Little Boots used a huge laser harp on stage. We’ve seen these things before and I just don’t get it. Let’s just stick with the normal instruments, shall we? [BrooklynVegan] https://gizmodo.com/laser-harp-officially-the-best-thing-weve-seen-all-mor-356955

Tech News Adam Frucci Mar 4

A New Way to Search for Alien Life

What would modern life be without lasers? They entertain our cats, shape our corneas, destroy our missiles, and distract from the terrible music at B-grade rock concerts. Now they could help us find aliens. The problem with looking for aliens, other than bothersome probes and anxiety about head size, is balancing the depth and breadth…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 4

Aurora Watch Trades Its Face For LASERS

The Aurora Watch has no interest in traditional minute and second hands. It doesn’t even have a dial to speak of. Yep, you’re just going to have to settle for good old fashioned touch activated laser hands. Yes, designer Jihun Yeom has put laser lights in a watch, with red indicating minutes and blue indicating…

Tech News Brian Barrett Feb 26

Why You and Everybody Else Wants Laser Eye Surgery

I never knew why Brian Lam wanted lasik so badly. He just called it “Godzilla protection.” [b3ta via The Daily What] https://gizmodo.com/what-does-lasik-really-feel-like-5051492

Books & Comics Mark Wilson Feb 26

Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Happy Birthday Photoshop Edition

In today’s Remainders: a celebration. Photoshop turns 20 and reminds us why we love it with laser-eyed babies and an Earth with AT-ATs. We’ve also got possible iPad preorders, definite MobileMe and Chromium OS improvements, PMA bummers and more. RIP PMA Pentax is the latest manufacturer to bail from PMA, joining Canon and Leica who…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Feb 19

Industrious Robot Scans Onion, Sculpts Onion

There’s a saying that a watched pot never boils. You could also say that a watched plant never grows—unless it’s being watched by a laser-wielding, 3D plastic sculpture-printing, growth-tracking megarobot. David Bowen’s “Growth Modeling Device” uses a circular rig to scan an onion once a day with a laser, then employing a “fuse deposition modeler”…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Feb 17

NASA’s Laser Pulse ChemCam Is Destined For CSI: Mars

The best way to figure out what something’s made of? Vaporize it. With a laser. That’s NASA’s philosophy, anyway, in the form of a high-energy laser system that’s going to be mounted on the next Mars rover. PEWPEW. The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system (LIBS), called ChemCam, will launch next year on the Mars Curiosity. It…

Space & Spaceflight Brian Barrett Feb 17

A Star Wars Laser Destroyed Two Missiles. How?

In two separate tests, a laser carried in a military airplane successfully destroyed airborne missiles this week. Since lasers may save the world some day, io9 takes a closer look at them, and how they’re more badass than conventional methods of lighting. The introductory paragraph is a little misleading. Conventional methods of lighting (or heating,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 14

This Is a Mosquito Getting Killed By a Laser

You’re looking at a mosquito who got taken down mid-flight by a “Death Star” laser gun designed by Nathan Myhrvold. The malaria-carrying pest never saw it coming, but you can watch everything happen over and over again in this video. The idea behind the “Death Star” laser is that it could be used to control…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Feb 11

192 Laser Beams Combined to Form One Megajoule Laser Shot

The folks at the national Ignition Facility decided to demonstrate fusion by focusing the energy of 192 super powerful lasers onto a tiny target. They certainly proved their concept by producing a one megajoule laser shot. Yeah, that’s pretty powerful. This demonstration is being proclaimed as a “key step towards nuclear fusion” by the National…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Jan 28

Major Laser: US Military’s Airborne Laser Tracks and Engages a Missile, in Mid-Air

The US military released this video of its YAL-1 airborne laser engaging a missile surrogate, all in mid-air. Guaranteed, it’s the most laser action you’ll see today. We don’t know much about this test. Here’s what we’ve got: The YAL-1 Airborne Laser engages the MARTI missile surrogate during a 10 January 2009 flight test. The…

Tech News Dan Nosowitz Jan 26

Laser Cats 5: James Cameron and Ripley and 3D Goggles, O Hai!

The infinitely cheesy SNL Digital Short Laser Cats series got a $1 billion shot in the arm last night, courtesy a guest spot by James Cameron. See how many of his movie references you can spot before the “thrilling” conclusion. It was good, but sadly it lacked the 3D effort put forth in Laser Cats…

Tech News Jack Loftus Jan 17

No, Seriously, a Working Star Trek Phaser With DIY Instructions

The good news: this Star Trek phaser mod has legitimate blow-em-up functionality and pewpew sound. The best news: you can build one of your very own. The full tutorial can be found at Laser Pointer Forums, a site I’ll obviously be visiting with far more frequency in the future. In the meantime, I’m going to…

Tech News Brian Barrett Jan 15

Suck It, Street View, Navteq Maps the World in 3D… With Lasers

Google’s Street View team famously photographs all kinds of weird stuff as they drive the world, but Navteq, who basically invented this stuff, just built a mount with seven cameras and 64 lasers to see everything better, in 3D. Mounted atop a VW Jetta wagon is this crazy apparatus with a 12-megapixel panoramic camera on…

Tech News Wilson Rothman Jan 8

The Mystery Of The Fruit Fly Penis Solved With Lasers

To anyone who doubts modern science still pursues essential lines of inquiry into the most pressing questions of our time, we present this resounding rebuttal. Two fearless truth seekers used lasers to figure out why fruit fly penises look weird. “Look weird” is, of course, not a technical term. More specifically, the penises of Drosophilia…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 8

There’s No Cure For Cancer, But We Are Hard At Work Shaving Fly Genitalia With Lasers

Today we salute you…biologists that gave a fly a full Brazilian with a laser so that you can study mating habits. You see the male fly has these spines on its junk and we just don’t know what the hell they are used for. My guess is that they have something to do with maintaining…

Tech News Sean Fallon Jan 7

Casio’s Green Slim Projectors Shed Bulk and Forgo Mercury

Casio’s new projectors are the first to get rid of environmentally un-friendly mercury without losing brightness. Beaming images at up to 3,000 lumens with a hybrid LED and laser system, the Green Slim projectors are lean, green projecting machines. Current data projectors use mercury-based lamps to beam images at intensities of 2000 or more lumens.…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Jan 6

Dazer Laser Fights Criminals With Loads of Pew Pew

After writing this morning about the Glare LA-9/P, a device that can blind people from 2.5 miles away, I got this video of a product called the Dazer Laser. It seems like a joke, but it’s real. I think? https://gizmodo.com/military-grade-laser-pointer-blinds-people-2-5-miles-aw-5439360 I just love the swoosh sounds—I think the guy doing the voice over makes them.…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jan 4

Can Microwave Technology be Used to Make Food Cold?

Microwaves can transform a frozen pizza into hot, melted goodness in four minutes flat, but they can’t rescue your melted ice-cream sundae. Or can they? To cook food, a microwave oven converts voltage into high-frequency electromagnetic microwaves. The molecules in food-especially water and fat-absorb this energy and wiggle at high speeds, causing them to heat…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Jan 4

Crew Uses Crazy Futuristic EarthRace Boat and Lasers to Fight Japanese Whalers

Regardless of your feelings about whaling, you have to admit the fight just got a whole lot more interesting. Check out this video of a Sea-Shepherd-manned (from Whale Wars) carbon-fiber, biofuel-powered EarthRace Trimaran blinding a Japanese whaling boat with lasers. https://gizmodo.com/earthrace-boat-carbon-trimaran-stabs-through-waves-vi-195323 Looks to us like the laser is mostly for warning and intimidation, which probably…

Tech News Dan Nosowitz Dec 31

Please Don’t Let Laser-Based Instruments Catch On

A New Way to Search for Alien Life

Aurora Watch Trades Its Face For LASERS

Why You and Everybody Else Wants Laser Eye Surgery

Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Happy Birthday Photoshop Edition

Industrious Robot Scans Onion, Sculpts Onion

NASA’s Laser Pulse ChemCam Is Destined For CSI: Mars

A Star Wars Laser Destroyed Two Missiles. How?

This Is a Mosquito Getting Killed By a Laser

192 Laser Beams Combined to Form One Megajoule Laser Shot

Major Laser: US Military’s Airborne Laser Tracks and Engages a Missile, in Mid-Air

Laser Cats 5: James Cameron and Ripley and 3D Goggles, O Hai!

No, Seriously, a Working Star Trek Phaser With DIY Instructions

Suck It, Street View, Navteq Maps the World in 3D… With Lasers

The Mystery Of The Fruit Fly Penis Solved With Lasers

There’s No Cure For Cancer, But We Are Hard At Work Shaving Fly Genitalia With Lasers

Casio’s Green Slim Projectors Shed Bulk and Forgo Mercury

Dazer Laser Fights Criminals With Loads of Pew Pew

Can Microwave Technology be Used to Make Food Cold?

Crew Uses Crazy Futuristic EarthRace Boat and Lasers to Fight Japanese Whalers

Artemis 2 Day 6: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

NASA Administrator Says Odds of Finding Alien Life Are ‘Pretty High’

The ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ Movie Did Rosalina Dirty

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The Artemis 2 Astronauts Are Now Farther From Earth Than Any Have Gone Before

The Imperial Credits From the ‘Andor’ Aldhani Heist Are Up for Auction, Which We’re Sure Is Not a Commentary on Capitalism at All

Check Your Medicine Cabinet for These Eye Drop Bottles After Millions Recalled

Artemis 2 Astronauts’ Epic iPhone Photos Are All… Selfies?

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