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Posted on 04/08/2009 2:16:42 PM PDT by LibWhacker
A new kind of laser could mean cheaper gadgets for all
Lasers might be pushing 50, but they are still the youthful pin-ups of fundamental physics. Since the first one was unveiled in 1960, the more apocalyptic predictions of how they might be used - as death rays, for example - have proved to be overblown. Their peaceful application, on the other hand, can be seen everywhere from cutting and welding to combating cancer and cataracts, to powering telecoms and consumer electronics, and has mushroomed into an industry worth $6 billion in 2007. Advances in the laser lab translate into gadgets in our homes at astonishing speed: think of the progression from CD to DVD and now Blu-ray technology in just a few decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
It's all in the application. Take those lasers that are used for cutting and welding and point them at someone, and bam, you have a death ray.
A big honkin plasma cutter would be a whole lot more fun, not to mention pretty.
"I expect you to die, Mr. Bond."
I recently toured a Harley Davidson factory and was impressed at how fine, precise and fast their lasers could cut sheet metal.
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You know, I think we need to get Humblegunner and Eaker to get one of those and play around with it in the back yard.. you know, education for when the SHTF as an alternate defense mechanism.
Auric Goldfinger: "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die."
THAT’s it! Memory cells gittin’ a little old...
QCLs are us. Really useful functional ones are at least a decade away. They have seen lasing but 1959 had the MASER followed shortly by the LASER. but commericially viable and useful ones weren’t available even for OEM use until the 80s
1963. 45 years. I was in third grade. Skate boards were the big thing in my neighborhood, as they were in every other neighborhood in America, I guess.
I heard about this new James Bond movie called Goldfinger from other kids. They said there was a naked lady in it, encased in gold. Someone said she was dead. Others said she was alive.
I asked my best friend about it. He said he didn't know, but that it was rated "C," which meant "condemned," and therefore he would never watch it. That was good enough for me; I knew right then and there that I didn't want to watch it either.
Long time ago, as I said.
Not really. EIther you don’t understand lasers or you don’t understand human physiology
remember the original james bond ‘cards’? each card had a black and white image of a scene from one of the first 3 movies and they were traded endlessly like MLB cards. long time ago.
**somebody** had to post it.
Cheers!
I have a very vague memory of those. I have a much better memory of Monkees cards. You collected all of them and the image fragments on their backs made a poster.
Thanks for the ping.
thanks, bfl
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