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Enlarge Image Seconds count. When a laser beam, pulsing at an average of once every 760 nanoseconds (left), is absorbed by red blood cells, the cells release sound waves that far exceed 100MhZ (right). Credit: Strohm et al., Biophysical Journal (2013) Combining lasers with a principle discovered by Alexander Graham Bell over 100 years ago, researchers have developed a new way to collect high-resolution information about the shape of red blood cells. Because diseases like malaria can alter the shape of the body's cells, the device may provide a way to accurately diagnose various blood disorders. The study relies...

Experiments suggest that the carbon sheets can produce beams in broad range of colours. Graphene, hailed as one of the thinnest, strongest and most conductive materials ever found, seems to have bagged one more amazing property. Experiments suggest that it can be used to create ultrashort laser pulses of any colour, owing to an ability to absorb light over a broad range of wavelengths. The discovery could help researchers to build small, cheap and highly versatile ultrashort-pulse lasers, with potential applications ranging from micro-machinery to medicine. Conventional ultrashort-pulse lasers use a material that absorbs light like a sponge and then...

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

Functional laser weapons are just five years away. Advocates hope that won’t always be the case. The Air Force has been working on airborne laser weapons for more than 40 years, but a fielded system remains elusive. Experts also warn that the US does not enjoy a commanding lead in laser research. And the Air Force’s flagship laser weapon program, the Airborne Laser (later called the Airborne Laser Testbed) was terminated late last year and is now being dismantled. Still, service and industry experts predict there is plenty of reason for realistic optimism. Operational laser systems that can perform a...

What would science fiction be without laser beams? From handheld ray guns to spaceship-mounted turbolasers, the futuristic weapon of choice definitely involves bright, colorful blasts of energy. In the early 21st century, projectiles still remain the standard means of inflicting damage from a distance. Yet continued research into "directed-energy" weapons by the United States military, among others, could someday bring lasers to a battlefield near you. Lasers are already used in guidance, targeting and communication applications, but significant technological obstacles stand in front of turning them into weapons by themselves. For certain niche scenarios, lasers might prove themselves ideal. It...

British researchers say they've developed a laser process that can "uncopy" toner ink from paper as an alternative to traditional recycling. Scientists at the University of Cambridge say the process involves short laser pulses to erase words and images by heating the printed material to the point that it vaporizes. The technique works with commonly used papers and toner inks and is more eco-friendly than recycling, they said. "When you fire the laser, it hits the thin toner layer and heats it up until the point that you vaporize it," researcher David Leal-Ayala told the BBC. "Toner is mostly composed...

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. Now, researchers have developed an advanced new bomb detection technique that uses lasers no more powerful than your typical presentation pointer to detect and identify bombs like IEDs from tens, if not hundreds, of feet away. The technology was developed by a team of researchers at Michigan State University led by chemist Marcos Dantus. "The laser and the method we've...

Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium — the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants. One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This futuristic approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation. Until now. In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking federal permission to build a $1 billion plant that would make reactor fuel by...

Making his case for cuts in defense spending,The Washington Post‘s David Ignatius wrote yesterday: Trimming the defense budget is one of the hardest tasks in Washington. … Senior Pentagon officials recognize that new technologies make it possible to reshape the budget without putting the country at greater risk. … The new technologies that will drive these changes are detailed in a study called “Technology Horizons” that was prepared last year by Werner Dahm, who was then chief scientist of the Air Force. He urged research on “cyber resilience” and “electromagnetic spectrum warfare,” including lasers and other beam weapons. … Lasers...

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was speaking after fans and players complained about the Suzuki Cup final match. [snip] Trouble began in Sunday's match in the second half when the Indonesian team claimed that Malaysian supporters had shone lasers directly into players' faces, including the captain, at several corner kicks, and the goalkeeper. The game was halted for eight minutes as Indonesia's players left the pitch. [snip] The Jakarta Post said that lasers reportedly also troubled the Vietnamese national team during a semi-final match against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Federal Aviation Administration officials are worried about a substantial increase in the number of people pointing lasers at aircraft cockpits, saying the intense light can distract and temporarily blind pilots and has caused some to relinquish control to their co-pilots or abort landings.This year, there have been more than 2,200 incidents reported to the Federal Aviation Administration, up from fewer than 300 in 2005. California, Texas and Florida have recorded the most, but the problem is widespread across the country.There hasn't been an air crash so far, but the incidents have aviation officials concerned.

Scientists have invented a tractor beam which is able to move large objects longer distances than ever before by using a laser light. A team of researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra have brought the art of molecular transportation, made famous by the catchphrase 'Beam me up, Scotty' from the TV series Star Trek, a fraction closer. Using what they call tractor beams - rays of energy that can move objects - they have managed to move tiny particles up to 59 inches from one place to another.

Russia is developing a military airborne laser system based on the IL-76 and designed to counter enemy intelligence means in different environments. The design in principle is not new as it was started in 1980. But a decade later, the funding was ceased because of lack of money, however now it was recommenced and goes as planned. However, some military experts doubt the effectiveness of the installation and consider spending money on it is absolutely unnecessary and ruinous to the Russian budget. The complex is designed to transmit laser energy to remote objects in order to counter the infrared opto-electronic...

Intel announced today that it has created a breakthrough data-transfer technology in its labs, using a combination of silicon chips and lasers to transfer data over a fiber optic cable at a speed of 50 gigabits per second. That is far faster than the maximum possible today with copper wires, which hit their peak around 10 gigabits per second. The new Intel Silicon Photonics Link is fast enough to transfer a high definition movie from iTunes in one second, or to transfer 1,000 high-resolution digital photos in a second, or send 100 hours of music in a second, or to...

A handheld laser likened to a Star Wars lightsabre and so powerful it can instantly blind and "set fire to skin and other body parts" can be bought online and shipped to the UK. The device - with a beam 1,000 times stronger than sunlight on the skin - is touted by makers as "the most dangerous laser ever created". Laser safety expert John Colton, director of Lucid Optical Services, told Sky News Online that the lasers were "horrendously dangerous.

The Google doodle has marked the 110th anniversary of the birth of Dennis Gabor, the Nobel Prize winner who invented holography. The Hungarian-born electrical engineer won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971 for the invention - a system of lensless, three-dimensional photography that has many applications. In 1949 Gabor joined the faculty of London's Imperial College of Science and Technology. In 1958 he became professor of applied electron physics. His other work included research on high-speed oscilloscopes, communication theory, physical optics, and television. Gabor was awarded more than 100 patents.

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), with support from Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, for the second time successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed a threat representative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while in flight, May 24, at San Nicholas Island, Calif. This marks the first Detect-Thru-Engage laser shoot-down of a threat representative target in an over-the-water, combat representative scenario. A total of two UAV targets were engaged and destroyed in a maritime environment during the testing, the second series of successes for the U.S. Navy's Laser Weapon System (LaWS) Program. Members of NAVSEA's Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems (DE&EWS) Program...

Ray Guns Near Crossroads to the Battlefield [Slide Show] The Pentagon ramps up efforts to field directed-energy beam weapons for land, air and sea By Steven Ashley        ARMY CONCEPT FIELD LASER: The U.S. Army hopes to better protect our troops by fielding in the next few years a mobile, ground-based laser weapon that can zap out of the sky multiple incoming rockets, missiles, or mortars. Live-fire tests of the compact, 100-kilowatt-class, solid-state laser technology’s capabilities for precision targeting and area defense missions are to begin by the end of this year.  After more than a century of popular sci-fi...

The first laser light was produced on May 16, 1960 at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, California when Theodore Maimen switched on his fist-sized device that flashed a bright red spot onto a photo-detector. Since then, lasers have become smaller, more powerful, and ubiquitous in modern technology. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the invention of the first working laser. Today, lasers can be found almost everywhere, from telephone lines to cutting edge scientific research, supermarket scanners, and even cat toys.

Airmen's traumatic battlefield injuries may be more effectively treated by using a new light-activated technology developed as a result of research managed by Air Force Office of Scientific Research and supported by funds from the Office of the Secretary of Defense This new treatment for war injuries includes using a process or technology called Photochemical Tissue Bonding, which can replace conventional sutures, staples and glues in repairing skin wounds, reconnecting severed peripheral nerves, blood vessels, tendons and incisions in the cornea. Harvard Medical School professor and Massachusetts General Hospital Wellman Center researcher, Dr. Irene Kochevar and her colleague at Wellman,...