LASERS

What Does LASIK Really Feel Like?

The nurse applied a series of numbing drops to my eyeball, each stronger than the previous. The doctor clamped my lids back with a metal tool. I felt a bracket hold my eye down and someone in the operating room gave the order, “Suction.” A whirring sound commenced and my eyeball felt like it was…

Health Brian Lam Sep 18

The Amazing Tech, Lasers and Lights Behind a Nine Inch Nails Concert

Trent Reznor, front man for Nine Inch Nails, is no stranger to cool tech, incredibly in-depth viral and ARG marketing campaigns, and new ways to entertain his fans live in concert. During their current Lights in the Sky tour, they let Wired writer Brian Gardiner and photographer Jon Snyder record and catalog basically everything that…

Tech News Jack Loftus Sep 13

UK Police Set Weapons to Stun: Test Non-Lethal “Directed Energy” Gear

Actually, it’s more like set to “ouch”: a UK government report has revealed the police are testing out non-lethal weapons. These include low-powered lasers which hit a miscreant’s skin and burn off the outer layer, “leaving them in agony, but with no permanent damage,” which sounds lovely doesn’t it?At least it won’t mess with your…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Sep 8

Move Over Star Wars, Tomorrow’s Tactical Lasers Will Be More Napalm Than Pew Pew

We’ve been kind of laser crazy here at Gizmodo lately, and with good reason: Deployable solid state lasers could be landing in military hands as early as 2009. We simply wish to be at the forefront of the pew pew revolution, with the hope that any burning sensation our writers feel in the near future…

Tech News Jack Loftus Sep 7

Northrop Grumman Death Star Lasers Are Weapons-Grade, Could Be Out in 2008

Wired’s Danger Room blog is spot on in comparing Northrop Grumman’s upcoming solid state laser system to the Death Star. Promised to arrive before the end of 2008, and far earlier than Boeing’s 25kW laser, it’s supposed to have 100 kilowatts of power (SERIOUS pew pew action) and make use of multiple, less powerful lasers…

Tech News Adrian Covert Sep 2

Personalized Pancakes: Laser Etching vs. Silkscreen vs. Stencils

It appears that Instructables member lamedust has moved on from laser-etched tattoos and fingernails to the exciting world of pancake personalization. I don’t even touch a pancake unless it has the entire Simpsons cast etched on it, so I was excited to see which of the three printing methods would work best for my time-consuming…

Tech News Sean Fallon Aug 27

Star Wars Laser Weapon Battles Arrive in 2016—at the Earliest

Boeing is firing off laser weapon press releases and news at almost the speed of light these days. In June we brought you word that the company had successfully test fired its thin-disk laser, the most powerful solid-state laser ever made at 25 kilowatts (100 kilowatt theoretical maximum). This week, Boeing took the chance to…

Tech News Jack Loftus Aug 24

U.S. Navy Developing Lasers and Huge Guns

The year is 2019. The destroyer U.S.S. Mason patrols enemy waters, and is suddenly faced with a barrage of incoming missiles. Almost instantly, dozens of brightly colored lasers beam out of the Mason, intercepting the missiles and destroying them harmlessly in the air. Then a massive deck-mounted gun turns and takes aim at an onshore…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 20

Drawing With Lasers, Art Class Was Never So Fun, Dangerous

It’s an obvious idea that we’d never thought of before. Put your camera on a tripod and set it for a slow exposure. Now pull out a laser pointer and spell out your deepest inner feelings (“I

Tech News Mark Wilson Aug 8

The True Story of the Hurricane Katrina Lightning-Laser Memorial and the Peg-Leg Biologist

Joe Davis is telling me about his design for a 110-foot lightning-laser tower that will literally seize a hurricane’s force, bottle it up and hurl it angrily back into the sky. It’s intended as a memorial for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Davis—whose official role at MIT is research affiliate associate in the biology department—plans…

Tech News Jack Loftus Jul 30

Laser Star Allegedly Turns Your Clunker Into Invisible Asphalt Phantom

Click to view The Laser Star is new to the States, but it’s already made a name for itself in Europe as a cheap, effective way to jam police speed trap lasers. These demonstrations from Laser Jammer Tests show why. No fewer than four police-issue laser detectors were foiled by the Laser Star without so…

Tech News Jack Loftus Jul 27

Flowlight: Like a Blackboard With Lasers

Precisely how the Flowlight would work is a little unclear, but the design page notes that a base station would focus a laser beam 100 times a second into a point in the space, creating small plasma points that glow in mid air. Users could then use the pen to draw and write, making doodles…

Tech News Sean Fallon Jul 25

DIY Home Laser Show Reacts To Music, Probably Won’t Incinerate Your Eyes

For those of you who’re into a little bit of creative electronics as well as fancying yourself as a bit of a mean DJ, this DIY laser light show may be just the thing to spice up your parties. Not only will the project spray laser light around (and who doesn’t like laser light shows?)…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Jul 23

Tooth Lasers Could Make Drilling a Thing of the Past

For some people, just the sound of a dental drill is enough to cause panic-but the good news is that this barbaric procedure may be a thing of the past. UK researchers have developed a technology that is based on Raman spectroscopy (a method that is currently used to identify chemicals) to spot tooth decay…

Tech News Sean Fallon Jul 21

Laser Tattoo Body-Modding, This Time it’s Not Painful: Fingernails

The skin-ablation laser tattoo we showed you recently was creepy mainly because burning your naked skin is going to hurt, but this new laser body-mod tackles a safer target, fingernails. The portraits of famous bods you can see in the image are laser-etched into black nail polish (I know, it looks like they’re made of…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Jul 15

Russian Ravers Blinded By Best (and Last) Laser Show They’ll Ever See

Another reason I’m glad I was never a rave kiddie whenever it was trendy in the US: Trippy lasers beamed into your eyes will blind you. A gaggle of Russian ravers at the July 5 Aquamarine Open Air Festival discovered this after tents erected to deflect heavy rains partially refracted lasers intended for skyward illumination…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Jul 14

New Radiohead Video is Shot with Lasers, Not Cameras

Radiohead, never ones to shy away from trying new things, has shot its new video for “House of Cards” without using cameras at all. Whaa? Yes, they’ve used two fancy new technologies called Geometric Informatics and Velodyne Lidar. To shoot it using lasers and stuff. Let’s break it down here. https://gizmodo.com/radiohead-offers-new-album-for-whatever-you-want-to-pay-305566 The Geometric Informatics scanning…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Jul 10

Scared of Bombs? Just Use Your Ray Gun!

“It’s a lot nicer if you don’t have to walk up to a bomb to find out what it is,” quips Larry Senesac of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. I would have to agree: roadside bombs are clearly no fun for anyone. That’s why Senesac and his fellow researchers have developed a laser system…

io9 Nivair H. Gabriel Jul 9

Guy Uses Laser-Etch Machine to Tattoo Himself (Verdict: Flaming Nutcase)

See that robot there? It’s burned by a laser-etch machine. On genyoowine human skin. Ohoho yes: that sent an icky feeling up your spine didn’t it? If it didn’t, then it should have. Try looking through the gallery, and then watch the video of a skin-etch in action, and that should do the trick… https://gizmodo.com/macbook-air-can-be-laser-etched-with-monkeys-359683…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Jul 2

Mitsubishi LaserVue Laser TV Will Be 65 and 73-Inches and Ship in Q3

Details on Mistubishi’s LaserVue, the rear-projection 1080p televison that uses frickin’ laser beams to display exceptionally rich color, are pouring out. The TV set will come in 65″ and 73″ varities when it ships in Q3 this year. It’s 10″ deep, thin by historical standards, but still somewhat thick for today’s tastes, but the 120Hz…

Tech News Benny Goldman Jun 25

What Does LASIK Really Feel Like?

The Amazing Tech, Lasers and Lights Behind a Nine Inch Nails Concert

UK Police Set Weapons to Stun: Test Non-Lethal “Directed Energy” Gear

Move Over Star Wars, Tomorrow’s Tactical Lasers Will Be More Napalm Than Pew Pew

Northrop Grumman Death Star Lasers Are Weapons-Grade, Could Be Out in 2008

Personalized Pancakes: Laser Etching vs. Silkscreen vs. Stencils

Star Wars Laser Weapon Battles Arrive in 2016—at the Earliest

U.S. Navy Developing Lasers and Huge Guns

Drawing With Lasers, Art Class Was Never So Fun, Dangerous

The True Story of the Hurricane Katrina Lightning-Laser Memorial and the Peg-Leg Biologist

Laser Star Allegedly Turns Your Clunker Into Invisible Asphalt Phantom

Flowlight: Like a Blackboard With Lasers

DIY Home Laser Show Reacts To Music, Probably Won’t Incinerate Your Eyes

Tooth Lasers Could Make Drilling a Thing of the Past

Laser Tattoo Body-Modding, This Time it’s Not Painful: Fingernails

Russian Ravers Blinded By Best (and Last) Laser Show They’ll Ever See

New Radiohead Video is Shot with Lasers, Not Cameras

Scared of Bombs? Just Use Your Ray Gun!

Guy Uses Laser-Etch Machine to Tattoo Himself (Verdict: Flaming Nutcase)

Mitsubishi LaserVue Laser TV Will Be 65 and 73-Inches and Ship in Q3

Amazon Drops Kasa Smart Light LED Bulbs (4-Pack) to Around $6 Each as Stock Clears Out

You Can Buy ‘Dune: Part Three’ IMAX Tickets Right Now

LA Has a Big Flea Problem. Typhus Cases Reached Record High Last Year

Samsung’s Tablet Deals Just Got Bigger, Galaxy Tab S10 Lite Hits Its Lowest Price With S-Pen on Amazon

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‘The Testaments’ Cast on How Their Show Mirrors Our Real-Life Dystopia

Meta to Smart Glasses Owners: Stop Hitting Yourself

Gaming Handhelds Are Getting Really Funky—and We’re Here for It

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