Stay away from the ocean!

     This post is a sort of follow-up to my last post, Death Rays.  I found an article at dvice.com that described a laser project that the Navy is working on.  The Navy has designed a pretty incredible free-electron laser (free-electron lasers are pretty cool, and you can check out how they work at Wikipedia.).  The article says that the Navy laser "produced a 200 kilowatt beam capable of burning its way through 20 feet of steel per second."  Holy crap!

     That's not all.  The article claims that the Navy is trying to build a laser that will do 100 times as good.  That's right; cut through 2,000 FEET OF STEEL PER SECOND.  Now I know you're thinking, "death rays are as good as real with that kind of technology!"  Just imagine if you sent that thing into space, along with one of those programmable mirrors that they put in laser TVs to direct the laser.  There's your death ray. 

Here's the only problem with that:

     The 20 ft steel/sec laser was the size of a football field, and can only, as of now, fit on a Navy aircraft carrier.  No other vehicle could hold the thing!  Imagine how much power it takes too.  So putting one of these in space is not probable, which means satellite death rays are a ways off.  However, the article reassures us that,

"as improvements in technology enable the laser to shrink, it'll also become more efficient, and by 2015 the goal is to get it down to 50 feet by 20 feet by 10 feet. And by 2020? It might be smaller still, able to fit into helicopters and drones, and it's not too much of a stretch to imagine something small enough to be handheld by 2030."

     That sounds like a world I would want to live in!  The one where terrorists with helicopters could blast through buildings and houses from a distance in a few seconds.  Airborne Gatling gun times a billion!

     I am a bit skeptical about the availability of handheld lasers that are this powerful even by 2030.  Think of the battery that would need to be on them!  The one I show in They're Out There only gets 30 shots, is a little bulky, and is waaaaaaayyyy less powerful.

Still... the fact that these projects are being developed is a little scary.  This stuff might actually end up working, and that might not be a good thing.

Star Wars! Death Rays! THE END OF THE WORLD!

     You have got to see this!  I found an article from the St. Petersburg Times, and several related ones from other sources, that describes an attack on U.S. satellites from Russia!  Here is the excerpt:

     The article is from the November 22, 1976 issue of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper.  According to the article, in 1975, Russia took out two U.S. satellites with a high-powered laser beam.  Scary, huh?  Especially the part about "hunter-killer satellites" and "death rays!"  Well, those predictions that the magazine made were pretty wild.  To my knowledge, we don't have "death rays" even today.  The only thing that comes close is the Boeing laser from Weaponizing Lasers. 

     This is a perfect representation of what journalists will say to get their story heard (and an interesting look into past journalism too).  The blinding of the satellite really boiled down to some burning (similar to the video in Weaponizing Lasers) on the satellites sensors or transmitters.  The image that comes to mind when reading the article, however, is that the laser completely annihilated the satellite!  I mean, the laser beam was "10,000 times as strong as a natural blaze!"  Wouldn't that be like an explosion, if a natural blaze is taken to be a small flame?  An excerpt from the Nov. 22, 1976 issue from the Milwaukee Journal said that the beam could "vaporize metal and produce destructive shockwaves."

     Wouldn't the reader get a sense of fear from this article, especially back in 1976, when the average man's understanding of lasers was not at all like what it is today.  People could not do a quick Google search back then to see how far lasers have come.  All they could do is imagine an evil Russian scientist sending a laser into space and killing every American that went outside!

I just found this interesting science communication about lasers from the seventies.  Pretty far-out, huh?

Self-Evaluation #2

     Since the last evaluation, I have altered the content and writing style of my posts to attract a wider audience.  I have attempted to make my posts "newsier" by searching for news articles related to lasers to find something new and exciting.  I have especially focused on controversial use of lasers, such as for weapons.

Maybe Not Such a Waste {rev}

     I am going to have to apologize for the last post.  My sarcasm seemed to bleed out of that one, didn't it?  Well I just felt I needed to respond to a certain incident.  It went like this:

     I used a laser pointer in a presentation for a class, and the next week, an experienced presenter demonstrated how awful laser pointers are when used in presentations.  He imposed his view on the entire audience, and I am sure many of them will take his words as truth since he is an experienced, intelligent presenter.

     Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but there are so many successful people out there that use laser pointers in their presentations.  Take Nobel Prize winner Eric Cornell, for instance.  He gave a presentation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology - NIST - (Hey! I worked there last summer!) concerning Bose Einstein Condensates.  Here is a snippet from the transcript:

"Bosons, on the other hand, love to all do the same thing. For instance, in this laser pointer which I hold in my hand, there are a tremendous number of photons first bouncing back and forth inside it and then spilling out one end. They are all going exactly the same direction with the same energy."

     Wow.  Even a Nobel Prize winner uses laser pointers.  And it's not just him.  During my summer at NIST, many of the employees utilized laser pointers as presentation tools.  Laser pointers were provided to the summer interns for their research presentations.  Employees could even buy laser pointers with the NIST label right on the side (for $90 no less, and they were selling!).

     So that is why I wanted to support the use of laser pointers.  I know the use of laser pointers in presentations is a matter of preference.  Of opinion.  There are those that think it is distracting (and of course it would be if all people were cats!).  But many individuals... successful ones at that... think it helps to direct attention and aid a presenter.  I just hope people will think for themselves and make up their own mind about whether laser pointers are helpful or not, instead of taking one person's views as truth.

So I will stick by my laser pointers, even if there are those that disagree with me.

Don't Waste Your Money

     I got duped!  I wasted my money on useless laser pointers!  What was I thinking?  Laser pointers have no purpose!  What are the possible applications for these scamalicious products?

1) Pointing at Presentations
2) Stargazing
3) Blinding Pilots (or anyone for that matter)

     But are these applications even useful?  How about laser pointers used as a presentation tool?  According to some professional speakers and presenters, laser pointers actually detract from the message by dazzling the audience like they were cats. Sloppy presenters might even shine the laser into the eyes of the audience, combining the problems with applications 1 and 3!

     Stargazing?  Now that isn't really an application.  After all, who even goes outside to look and point at stars nowadays, let alone try to map them?  All the ones we can see with our eyes or low-end telescopes (even without city lights inhibiting this hobby) have been mapped already.  Besides, shooting a laser in the sky can land you in jail if you end up accidentally taking part in application number 3...

     Attacks on pilots with laser pointers have increased across the nation, and the act is now considered a federal crime.  Laser pointers are a tool that evil people can use to ruin the days of innocent pilots and travelers.

     So why own a laser pointer?  Why even allow companies to manufacture them?  They are only good for destroying presentations, eyes, airplanes, and your wallet. 

.........Right?

They're Actually Out There!

     I have to admit it.  I was wrong.  I received a comment on an earlier post, Weaponizing Lasers, concerning high powered lasers in the hands of average people.  I expressed my skepticism of that happening anytime soon due to my belief that hand held laser weapons would require a huge power supply.  Well I guess I should stop expressing my doubt about laser terrorism because it seems like those laser guns from Star Wars actually exist!  Check out this website that shows a laser gun prototype and a video of its operation.  I have included the video below.

     The "plasma ball" seen in the video is, I believe, an example of filamentation.  Filamentation occurs when the intensity of the laser is so large that the laser actually causes the air it travels through to mimic a lens.  This occurs because the laser heats up the air in a special way.  In the end, the laser self-focuses, and becomes even more intense!  Now, the laser's self-focusing also has to fight diffraction (the photons' desire to be spread apart from each other), but if the laser is strong enough, the light will cause the air to ionize, like the gas in a fluorescent lamp.  Voila!  "Plasma ball!"

     Also notice in the video that the gun was supposedly purchased.  That means there is someone out there who wants to use it for one of three purposes:

1) To use it for fun,
2) To use it for evil purposes,
3) Or to use it to accessorize a Star Wars costume.

Let's hope it's not #2.  If the laser can filament, it can blind, burn, sear, scar, sting, zap, and tingle.  Those laser issues at airports.... Well those might be just the beginning....

Laser Hype: Aliens, Star Trek, Geeks, and BBC

     When I was abducted by aliens, I experienced a trip through something called a tractor beam.  After my traumatic encounter with the aliens, I have decided that it is a good idea we start developing our own tractor beam so we can give the aliens some payback one day.

     Back to reality.  Of course, I was never abducted, but I found a few articles {India Times, Geekologie, BBC} that describe lasers as the key to creating tractor beams.  The first article describes a Bessel laser that has the ability to pull small objects toward the laser source.  However, the physics behind the phenomenon was poorly described in the article.  I find this to be a result of the scientist-journalist communication gap.  Apparently the author of the article did not deem the specifics behind the Bessel laser to be of much importance, or he simply did not understand it.  For a reader like myself, I had a hard time believing the vague explanation that was provided.

     The first article left me wanting.  I needed to learn more about the physics behind lasers as tractor beams.  I found my way to the second article, which describes not a Bessel laser, but a hollow, or ring, laser.  Particles in the center of the ring can be kept in the center of the ring due to the higher temperature surrounding the particles.  This method can be used to create an "optical trap" for particles.  Optical traps are used in many experiments, such as ones involving Bose-Einstein condensates.  The trap can be translated to move the trapped particles.  Nevertheless, I found the trap is less like a tractor beam than the Bessel laser was claimed to be, so I moved on.

     I finally arrived at the BBC website that mentioned both technologies but gave more detail and analogies for the Bessel laser.  In the end, it seems that Bessel lasers can only pull small particles tiny distances.  The optical trap method has been able to move a cluster of particles over longer distances, like five feet.

Tractor beams?  Not yet.
Someday?  Maybe.
Hype?  Absolutely.

     The technology and idea is very cool, but its applications as of yet extend only to a few feet for a small mass.  The titles of the articles I researched gave the impression of a large scale, UFO style tractor beam.  Even the content said the beam would soon be used for large scale applications.  That's hype if I've ever seen it.

Now let's go kick some alien butt!

Off topic, but I can't resist!

     I recently read a chapter from Stephen Schneider's "Science as a Contact Sport" for my Communicating Science class.  While I was reading, I started to become annoyed at the bias that was painted all over the first half of the chapter.  It was clear to me that Schneider disapproved of Conservative views and opinions, and he made a large effort to discredit those views.  Fortunately, he began to let up on politics and make arguments about the flaws of the media and about effective science communication.

     After reading the chapter, I watched a clip from Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," of which I had only seen a little.  I have to say that I was beginning to get tired of listening to one side of the story.  I then watched a video of Glenn Beck to satisfy my desire for balance.  It is true that I was getting some of each side, but those videos were probably not the best ones to watch to better understand global warming.  They are epitomes of extreme reporting.

     After it all, I am not sure which data to believe.  I might have been able to glean some truth from the issue had I been exposed to a more moderate view on global warming.  One that showed the many opinions on the matter and commented on the credibility of each view --- a concept that Schneider advocates in his work.

     I found the investigation into global warming enlightening, but I am personally more interested in other topics.  Laser physics, sports, and entertainment especially interest me.  Concerning the global warming issue, the following compilation of video clips is one that I would prefer to watch.

     There isn't a lot of truth in those clips, and all of them mock or belittle the serious issue, but I still get a kick out of them.  Just realize that none of this should change your opinion on climate change.  Look somewhere else for valuable information.