LASERS

Radio Tornadoes Could Deliver Neverending Wi-Fi Capacity Some Day

Coaxial wiring—like what runs into your cable box—revolutionized data transmission by drastically widening the wire’s data pipeline. Two years ago, a research team from University of Southern California accomplished the feat using a vortex of lasers. Now, that same team is back with a means of coiling radio waves around themselves that could provide us…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Sep 18

Why are these fish shooting out blue lasers with their mouth?

I wish these crazy blue laser lava spewing fish were a newly discovered species or some radioactive experiment gone wrong but they’re not. Luckily, reality is just as cool. Well, almost. The blinding light is actually a tiny crustacean called an ostracod’s defense mechanism against the translucent cardinalfish. Basically, the tiny little 1mm in size…

Sploid Casey Chan Sep 4

This Dazzling Laser Show Is Way More Effective Than Any Warning Shot

Warning shots are a waste of ammunition and not a particularly effective deterrent. Instead, modern warfighters inform potentially lost civilians/potential suicide bombers that they’re in the soldier’s rifle sights by blasting them with laser light from barrel-mounted laser dazzlers like these. The U.S. military had a rough go manning vehicle checkpoints during the Iraq and…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Sep 2

Physicists Use Lasers to Chill the World’s Coldest Molecules

If you thought last winter was cold, you should stay as far away from magneto-optical trapping as possible. Yale physicists recently used this technique to cool a molecule of strontium monoflouride down to 2.5 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero. That makes them the world’s coldest molecules. It’s also really cold! Absolute zero is…

Physics & Chemistry Adam Clark Estes Aug 25

Time lapse of an airport makes airplanes look like shooting stars

Aside from going through security and lugging around your carry on and rushing to the gate and avoiding human swarms, airplanes are magical places. Okay, maybe not. But there’s beauty in how they operate. Just watch this ballet of airplanes at Shanghai’s airport. It’s like seeing man made shooting stars. Or a light dance with…

Sploid Casey Chan Aug 14

This Industrial Paper-Cutter Sounds Like a Star Wars Blaster

Just listen to this thing. YouTuber Michael Asher‘s dad has a print shop, equipped with this very scary but totally mesmerizing paper cutter. It zips through a ream of paper like a hot Storm Trooper Blaster through the air around Han Solo. [Digg]

Tech News Bob Sorokanich Aug 9

Making Faster Optical “Cables” Using Nothing But Lasers and Air

Pulses of light are the absolute fastest way to transfer data (because nothing’s faster than light), but old school fiber optic cables can only go so many places. Scientists have a new idea: use high-powered lasers to make a column of low-density air that can carry a light signal just as well as a normal…

Space & Spaceflight Bob Sorokanich Jul 22

Scientists Use World’s Largest Laser To Recreate Jupiter’s Core

It is not pleasant inside the core of Jupiter—or any other planet for that matter. However, gaining a better understanding of what’s going on in there is key for understanding how these planets form. That’s why a team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently used diamonds and lasers to recreate those very conditions.…

Space & Spaceflight Adam Clark Estes Jul 18

Watch The Curiosity Rover Shoot A Martian Rock With A Laser!

Besides beaming us back rare astronomy photos, one of the visually cooler duties the Curiosity rover has up on Mars is firing its lasers at rocks it encounters in its path. Here’s the first footage it’s ever sent back of just how that process works. After Curiosity fires its laser, the resulting flash of plasma…

io9 Ria Misra Jul 17

Measure the Width of Your Hair With a Laser Pointer!

I love learning new things to do with a laser pointer. (Usually I just blind people. That gets old.) This cool short video shows you how to measure the width of a human hair. This three-minute video, enlivened by footage of one scientist yanking the hair out of another scientist’s head, shows you how to…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jul 15

Hawaii’s Using Lasers to Scare Endangered Birds Away From Power Lines

Hawaii has a bird problem. They keep crashing into power lines and dying. While that’s not so grim when pigeons are involved, the situation gets more serious when the birds are endangered. And many of the species in Hawaii are. That’s why they’re busting out the lasers. On the island of Kaua’i, a local utility…

Biology Adam Clark Estes Jul 3

Nice Try, Vegans: Plants Can Actually Hear Themselves Being Eaten

While it’s still unclear whether or not plants can actually feel us sinking our teeth in, one thing is for certain: You can be damn well sure they’re hearing it. Thanks to a new report from the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU), researchers have discovered that plants respond to the specific sounds caterpillars make when eating…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Jul 3

The Navy Wants to Mount an Anti-UAV Laser on a Hummer–A Hummer!

The Office of Naval Research has just announced another breakthrough in its efforts to bring laser-based weapons to future battlefields. What once could only be accommodated by a tractor trailer now fits neatly in the back seat of a Humvee. It’s only a matter of time until our armed forces march off to war with…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Jun 17

These Revolutionary Optics Could Make Battlefield Lasers a Reality

Weapons that shoot light rather than bullets are quickly becoming a reality, however their huge bulk and even larger energy consumption still demand that they be mounted on vehicles such as battleships and tractor trailers. But thanks to this newly developed optics system from the US Army Research Lab, tomorrow’s battlefields could soon be crowded…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Jun 16

The Marines Are Building An Anti-Drone Weapon—And, Yep, It’s A Laser

Now that pretty much everyone has surveillance drones, the U.S. Marines need to develop a weapon to knock them out of the skies—especially during the critical period when reconnaissance forces are landing on a beach. Faced with a shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, the Marines are looking for a few good lasers. Currently, Marines serving in…

io9 Mark Strauss Jun 13

NASA’s Using Space Laser to Download Video From Orbit at Gigabit Speeds

NASA’s latest data download just covered way more distance, and contained way more awesome, than any earthbound file transfer: the agency beamed a high-def video down from the International Space Station this week using a high-powered laser. Go ahead and give your WiFi router a good stern look. The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science project,…

Space & Spaceflight Bob Sorokanich Jun 7

Scientists Invent a Laser That Fires Electrical Charge, Not Light

Researchers at the University of Michigan have just stumbled upon the most important development in laser research since the invention of the semiconductor diode in the 1950s. It promises to create a new class of lasers that use 250 times less energy than today’s, and that’s not even the craziest part. Semiconductor diodes convert electricity…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Jun 6

Earn $10,000 By Ratting On Friends Who Point Lasers At Aircraft

After a successful trial project in several major US cities, the FBI has announced that it will reward upwards of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of anyone who intentionally aims a laser at an aircraft. Last year, 3,960 laser strikes were reported — a nasty practice with potentially catastrophic consequences. According to the…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

Scientists create a supernova in a lab right here on Earth

Scientists at the Vulcan laser lab in the United Kingdom have used three high powered light beams “focused on a carbon rod target not much thicker than a strand of hair “to create a supernova right here on Earth—a tiny supernova, but a supernova nonetheless. The researchers conducted the experiment to understand the shape of…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Jun 2

These Mirrors Could Give Satellites Their Own Dust-Busting Space Lasers

Anyone who’s watched Gravity knows debris is always worse in space. Even dust, which can meddle with satellite sensors and cause all kinds of trouble—until now. Thanks to science, lasers are coming to the rescue. The engineering folks at Fraunhofer have developed a unique thermic-piezoelectric deformable mirror that won’t break while focusing high-powered lasers. When…

Tech News PJ Smith May 14

Radio Tornadoes Could Deliver Neverending Wi-Fi Capacity Some Day

Why are these fish shooting out blue lasers with their mouth?

This Dazzling Laser Show Is Way More Effective Than Any Warning Shot

Physicists Use Lasers to Chill the World’s Coldest Molecules

Time lapse of an airport makes airplanes look like shooting stars

This Industrial Paper-Cutter Sounds Like a Star Wars Blaster

Making Faster Optical “Cables” Using Nothing But Lasers and Air

Scientists Use World’s Largest Laser To Recreate Jupiter’s Core

Watch The Curiosity Rover Shoot A Martian Rock With A Laser!

Measure the Width of Your Hair With a Laser Pointer!

Hawaii’s Using Lasers to Scare Endangered Birds Away From Power Lines

Nice Try, Vegans: Plants Can Actually Hear Themselves Being Eaten

The Navy Wants to Mount an Anti-UAV Laser on a Hummer–A Hummer!

These Revolutionary Optics Could Make Battlefield Lasers a Reality

The Marines Are Building An Anti-Drone Weapon—And, Yep, It’s A Laser

NASA’s Using Space Laser to Download Video From Orbit at Gigabit Speeds

Scientists Invent a Laser That Fires Electrical Charge, Not Light

Earn $10,000 By Ratting On Friends Who Point Lasers At Aircraft

Scientists create a supernova in a lab right here on Earth

These Mirrors Could Give Satellites Their Own Dust-Busting Space Lasers

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

Beats Solo 4 Headphones Are Back at Black Friday Pricing and Over 4x Cheaper Than AirPods Max

‘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

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

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