What's different about this laser weapon is that it's solid state - there are no vast vats of chemicals sloshing around like in the USAF Airborne Laser, arguably making it much more fit for purpose as a military weapon in the long-term - something on which most military experts and US government sponsors seem to agree.
6. Lasers in any colour you like
[Picture credit: University of Rochester]
Scientists at the University of Rochester say they've cracked that conundrum by coming up with a new kind of nanocrystal that enables different colour lasers to be made from the same materials, making them much cheaper and easier to produce - and that could have profound implications for the gadgets we know and love: imagine a pocket money PS3, for example.
[via Physorg]
7. Making stars on planet Earth
The Large Hadron Collider may or may not turn the Earth into a massive black hole, but over at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, scientists are working on something even more exciting - the creation of stars on Earth.
[Picture credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]
Its National Ignition Facility (NIF) houses a network of 192 lasers, the light from which - it is hoped - can be amplified and filtered to eventually create nuclear fusion - the atomic reaction that gives our sun its awesome power.
[via Wired]
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