Just kidding. That’s not even kind of true. What is true, though, is that instead of focusing their energy (heh, heh, heh) on making the world’s biggest laser, Berkeley researchers have recently turned their attention to the other end of the size spectrum.  And they have been successful in their endeavors–they just created “the world’s smallest semiconductor laser.”

Now, as usual, we won’t pretend to have any real understanding of how this nano-thing works, but apparently it has solid implications for the fields of optical computing, optics-based telecommunication and nanolasers that manipulate DNA. This means that related technology will be likely become much faster and that scientists will finally be able to develop a tiny army of super-mutants to take over the world.

Image Source: Fenchurch! under Creative Commons
World’s smallest semiconductor laser heralds new era in optical science [NewsCenter]

Posted in: Sci/Tech
Tags:lasers, nano, optics, Research, semiconductors
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What happens when you shoot off 192 of the world’s biggest, hottest … laser beams at one hydrogen fuel-packed, pea-sized target? A massive explosion of energy that would make even stars glow with envy and shake large planets to their cores (literally). That’s what.

And that’s what’s going on in the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Lab. The facility–which was officially dedicated on Friday at a ceremony attended by the likes of the Governator himself–houses the world’s largest laser. Scientists hope to mimic the nuclear fusion that powers stars and eventually harness the incredible energy reactions like that produce to replace other, dirtier, less efficient forms of energy. Mm, baby, clean energy. Is it just us, or did it just get hotter in here? Like, 100 million degrees hotter …

Oh, there’s just one tiny incidental detail we should probably mention: “Another of [the facility's] roles is to study the conditions associated with the inner workings of nuclear weapons.” Well, there’s the rub. Um, yeah, that’s kind of a buzz kill.

Image Source: Fenchurch! under Creative Commons
World’s largest laser opens [UC Newsroom]

Posted in: Sci/Tech
Tags:lasers, Lawrence Lab
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