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Using ultra-fast pulsing lasers, scientists have managed to split ultraviolet light into separate frequencies, put them equal distance apart, send them shooting across a lab, and use them to measure atomic clocks. More »
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Space, the final frontier...of warfare? Science fiction tales often center around the militarization of space, with lasers and torpedoes made of light racing past (and through) battleships and star destroyers. More »
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The closer we come to inventing a viable tractor beam - a ray of light that can move objects - the more obvious it is that real tractor beams will not look anything like the glowing blue rays from science fiction. So how will beams of light actually move matter? Let's find out by looking at three ways that scientists can already move solid objects using nothing more than light. More »
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If you've ever sat in a sound "dead zone" in a movie theater or concert, you know what it's like to be at a loud event where everything sounds muffled and distorted. Luckily, lasers may soon put an end to these dead zones. The UK's National Physical Laboratory has figured out how to use lasers to see sound waves in a room - as well as acoustic dead zones. More »
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The Pentagon's already got brain-controlled prosthetics, and they are a major improvement over old-school artificial limbs. The devices are far from perfect, however. They rely on metal implants, which aren't compatible with the body's tissues, and they can only transmit a few signals at a time - turning what should be a simple movement into a Herculean task. More »
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For soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most dangerous threat comes not in the form of a bullet, but a bomb. According to NATO, improvised explosive devices (IEDs for short) account for over half of all deaths among coalition soldiers. More »
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A simple laser pointer can help you see the tiny bugs that crawl around in liquid all the time. Will this make you appreciate the simple ways to see the richness of life? Or will you bleach everything you come in contact with? Try it and see! More »
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NASA is finally pushing to bring space communication out of the dark ages by boosting their data transmission rates from dial-up speeds to broadband. And they're looking to do it with lasers. More »
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BAE System's Mk 38 chain gun was already a formidable opponent: a 250millimeter cannon capable of putting 180 rounds per minute into the air from the deck of a naval ship, strongly urging those without clearance to keep a safe distance (of about 2,000 yards). More »
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Lasers have become common since their invention in the 1960s. We use them every day to read optical media like DVDs, to see if our shelves are level, measure distances, or just to point at things. There are lots of medical and industrial uses for lasers too, but what we really want to know is how we can use them to defeat alien and Cylon invaders. Here are some ways the military is (and will be) using lasers on the battlefield. More »
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Scientists have come up with a super-sensitive microphone that works underwater. What did it take? The same thing it takes to accomplish anything worth doing: lasers. More »
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It looks like X-Men: First Class isn't the only thing cashing in on Cold War nostalgia this summer. Russia may also be reaching back to the past by reviving a Soviet-era laser project. More »
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The W.M. Keck Observatory switched on both its adaptive optics lasers last month, creating the amazing spectacle of two powerful lasers firing into space simultaneously. More »
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Bessel Beams are impossible to create, can't be destroyed, and don't diffract. In other words, physics has discovered yet another thing that makes no sense. More »
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The Extreme Light Infrastructure is a new project that will build three incredibly powerful new lasers. Capable of creating energy pulses 20 times more powerful than anything before, these new lasers could help us probe the world of weird physics. More »
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A Navy laser set fire to a small ship bobbing in unruly seas this week, the first at-sea demonstration of one of the Navy's ray guns. Check out the Navy's video of a fire slowly consuming the inflatable boat's outboard motors. More »
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Scientists have figured out a way to flip the spin of individual atoms caught up in a laser matrix. Using this method, they can literally use the spin of atoms to make two-dimensional designs. More »
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Ferengi smugglers shake in their boots as the first step towards tractor beams is announced. In the past, lasers have been used only to impart forward momentum to their targets. They hit objects with photons, and those objects move forward with the beam of light (or burst into flame). Now scientists in Hong Kong have figured out how to use a special kind of laser to pull objects toward the laser's source. More »
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Lasers are everywhere these days, and for very good reason. They're insanely useful. They can be used to detect chemicals, play tag, re-shape people's eyes, play music, make concerts more spectacular, play with pets, make precision cuts, and play virtual tennis inside the house. Whether lasers are used for aesthetic, utilitarian, or recreational reasons, the vast majority of lasers need one thing — a clear field between the device that emits them and whatever is supposed to receive them. Now it looks like —at least in medicine — that's about to change. More »
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The Navy's death ray weapon keeps burning through laser records, on its way to the ultimate goal of searing through 2,000 feet of steel per second. More »
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Scientists and engineers at Yale University have just created an anti-laser, a device which absorbs light. Instead of shooting energy out of a tube, it takes energy into a tube. Instead of creating light, it creates darkness. How does it work? More »
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It's an awesome solution to a simple problem: you need ridiculous amounts of fuel to get a rocket into orbit. However, if the rocket fuel was considerably hotter, it would be more energetic, and you'd need way less fuel to launch the rocket. So why don't we just shoot powerful lasers at rockets? It's so insane that it just might work. More »
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Take an ordinary, non-superconducting material and hit it with light, and its electrons suddenly reorganize into a resistance-free, superconducting arrangement. This only works at extremely low temperatures, but it could help us solve the riddle of practical superconductors. More »
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For less than $30 you can purchase a laser pointer upwards of 100 milliwatts, powerful enough to pinpoint a star in the sky with an eerie green beam. Astronomers are fond of the devices. Unfortunately, so are pranksters and vandals. More »
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Scientists at Berkeley have created a laser that's a fraction of the size of a hair. This ultra-tiny laser is so precise that its beam can detect individual molecules. More »
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Marauding pirates could soon find themselves up against a new long-range laser weapon, designed to leave them blinded, bewildered and all at sea. More »
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Laser scanning techniques reveal elaborate cave systems under the town of Nottingham. Some are mines, some are dungeons, and part of this closed-off one was once used as a stable. More »
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Find out what Maxwell's Demon is, and how some physicists are channeling it. More »
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Scientists also use lasers to cool atoms, nearly to absolute zero. Over time, a laser can take almost all the energy out of an atom. And it does this in the most contrary way possible: forcing energy into the atom. More »
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The purple-and-blue blur you see here is a representation of light in a perfectly quantum state, or "cat state," where particles exhibit opposite properties simultaneously. Now scientists have created this seemingly impossible state - using lasers, of course. More »
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Spectrometers may allow people to scan themselves instead of sticking themselves. Yes, laser technology is now acquiring the companion technologies necessary to help diabetics stop having to poke themselves full of holes in order to stay alive. More »
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Lasers can stimulate nerves and synchronize the pulsing of heart cells, but now they can control organs. In a breakthrough experiment, scientists used infrared light to control the beats of a quail's heart. More »
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NASA has created a global snapshot of the world's forests using satellites and LIDAR, a laser technology that measures the height of forest canopy using pulses of light. This map took seven years and 250 million pulses to create. More »
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This laser is designed to look like a lightsaber from Star Wars, and it has enough power to destroy your retinas. It costs just $200 online and can burn your skin off. I have a very bad feeling about this. More »
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Sure, we have iPhones and running water and imitation crab meat, but when it comes to bugs, most of us still swat them with a flat surface attached to a stick. Find out how it should be done. More »
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NASA and the European Space Agency are planning to launch three spacecraft into orbit around the sun, three million miles apart, and have them fire lasers at each other to prove the theory of general relativity. More »
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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. More »
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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. More »
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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. More »
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When nanotech and lasers team up, is there anything they can't do? Apparently not. New research shows a combined nanotube/laser treatment zaps kidney tumors in 80 percent of mice. Nanotech is teaming up with viruses to kill ovarian tumors, too. More »
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