Morons with Laser Pointers

Remember when I told you about those two guys that went to jail for shining a laser at an airplane (see Fun and Games)?  Well they aren't the only morons out there!  I ran a search in Google for news containing the words "laser," "shining," and "arrested" to see how many people out there are getting in trouble with their laser pens.  I checked the entire list that Google spat out for the year of 2010.  I made a cumulative plot of incidents that related to idiots shining laser pointers at police, cars, helicopters, and airplanes.  By the way, some news articles did use terms like "moron" and "idiot!"  Anyway, take a gander at the figure:

There were 64 news reports that were relevant, which means that there was an average of one news report every 6 days.  Now that doesn't seem like a lot, but I was only looking at Google news reports that had particular phrases, and not all incidents make the news.  My calculations are smaller than the actual amount by a significant factor.  I found a more accurate plot from laserpointersafety.com (after all my work... should have gone there in the first place!).  These are just reported incidents though.  Take a look:

My calculations off of the figure suggest that there are, on average, 12 incidents per day for the year of 2010!  Here are some numbers that the FAA give:

• 2010: 2,836 (7.8 incidents each night)
• 2009: 1,527 (4.2 incidents each night)
• 2008: 955 (2.6 incidents each night)
• 2007: 643 (1.8 incidents each night)
• 2006: 420 (1.2 incidents each night)
• 2005: 311 (0.9 incidents each night).

There are obviously some disagreements with the plot and the numbers, but it is clear that the rate of incidents is increasing, and the yearly numbers are staggering.

These plots have shown us just how many morons with laser pointers are out there.

Bye Bye Sparks Plugs

Researchers have decided that spark plugs have got to go.  Spark plugs were invented in 1860 and have been in combustion engines and automobiles ever since.  That is a long time, and the technology really hasn't advanced since its start.

Lasers have been around since the 1950's, which is still a long time ago, but lasers have advanced a lot more than spark plugs have.  That is why researchers are now interested in replacing spark plugs with lasers to ignite fuel in combustion engines (source).  Previously, lasers were too fragile to withstand the harsh environment in the engine, but now lasers can be made out of tough ceramics.  These ceramics can survive in engines, and the lasers add some benefits over spark plugs:

Spark plugs use electrodes that corrode with every spark.  Lasers don't have this issue.  They just blast an intense laser beam into the combustion chamber and let the light do its work.

Spark plugs are positioned on the side of the combustion chamber, so the fuel is ignited unevenly which causes inefficiency and creates more pollutants.  Lasers can be sent straight through the center of the chamber to evenly ignite the fuel, bypassing those drawbacks from spark plugs.  Additionally, several lasers can be sent into the chamber to increase the uniformity of ignition.

Spark plugs can be ignited precisely within a few milliseconds, whereas lasers can be controlled down to the nanosecond.  This precision allows greater control over exactly when the fuel is ignited, which helps to increase efficiency.

Clearly, lasers are the hip new way to rotate your wheels.  Let's hope they work the wonders that I have stated here!

Wait. What?

I read an article at Techland that has me in disbelief.  I am a bit skeptical of what they are reporting, but I have no facts or evidence to say they can't do what they claim.  You need to take a look at the article and tell me if you believe the reporter.  Tell me if you think a laser could be made that produces more power in a single beam than all of the world is using at any moment.  I bet some of our friends in the electrical energy industry will say it can't be done.

I might be able to believe it if the beam is emitted in a very short pulse.  Remember, power is a rate.  Maybe that kind of power can be produced for an incredibly short period of time so that the total energy consumption is in the believable range.

Glow in the Dark

Remember way back when I told you about fluorescence?  Well there is another funny phenomenon called phosphorescence, and it's the secret behind all of your glow-in-the-dark decorations and toys.  You probably even know a little about how they work. 

Think about it.  When you look at the object in the dark, is it always glowing?  Not if you didn't leave it in the lamplight before you turned off your lamp!  That's because you have to "charge" the phosphorescent material up like a battery.  This "charging" happens optically.  Light from your lamp hits the atoms in the material, the atoms become excited and reach what is called a "triplet state," where the upper state lifetime for the atom is quite long (minutes or hours).  There is a bit of quantum mechanics behind it all, but the previous description is just a fancy way of saying the atom is storing the energy for a while before letting it go. 

When many of the atoms are charged, and you turn off the light, some of the atoms start spitting out their energy in the form of light.  This continues to happen until all of the atoms have released their energy.

How does this relate to lasers?  Well a laser can be used to charge a phosphorescent material super fast, since the laser is so intense and blasts all of the atoms in the material to their triplet states.  Check out the video below to see this in action!

Lasers help to free you from your demons

You were a teenager!  You were young, irresponsible, and wanted something to show off.  Getting that tattoo was the natural thing to do!

But now you are getting tired of putting lotion on it, and the image is blurring, and you are afraid of what will happen when you get wrinkles.  Maybe you are becoming a different person, and that image of the devil just isn't you anymore.  Maybe "Jessica" dumped you, and you want to erase every memory of her.  Whatever the reason, you want your tattoo gone.  Well take a look at this video, where a man came to a similar realization and is using lasers to help him get rid of his demons [source].

Laser Powered Cars!

 Can you imagine that?  Well your cars may someday be driven by lasers!  ........... indirectly.

     A new application has been considered by the Argonne National Laboratory where lasers drill the wells to get to oil and natural gas.  Here's how this works:  A fiber optic cable sends high powered laser pulses (nearly as powerful as the Navy laser) down a shaft to blast away rock, and then the rock is carried to the surface (by using drilling fluids or another method).  As you can imagine, this takes a ton of energy, but it can actually be less expensive than current drilling methods.  Current methods already require a lot of energy, and drill bits need replacing every so often.  That isn't true for laser drills.

     The Argonne Laboratory is actually working with the Colorado School of Mines on this project.  Dr. Ramona Graves in the petroleum department at CSM is in charge of research concerning laser-rock interaction, which exactly relates to this project.  So there are definitely efforts to get this technology ready for use in the field.

What you can't see CAN hurt you... but can be pretty useful...

As I showed in my video blog in my last post, infrared light is invisible to the naked eye.  You can detect its presence with an infrared viewer or infrared camera, but not many people carry those around with them.  My green laser pointer emits infrared light in addition to the green light.  This can be dangerous because that infrared light adds to the power of the total beam, and it makes the beam more capable of causing eye injury.  That means the user has to be extra careful to not shine the laser toward people.

Infrared light isn't all bad though.  Many high powered lasers, like CO2 or Nd:YAG lasers, use infrared light (a lot of it) to cut through materials.  For CO2 lasers and Nd:YAG lasers, the output wavelength is 1064 nm, which happens to be the same wavelength of infrared light that my green laser pointer emits.  The Nd:YAG laser is used for 3D engraving.  Check out the video below to see how that works!

What else can infrared light be used for?  Here is a project for those do-it-yourself-ers out there!

*************** AS ALWAYS, SAFETY FIRST! ***************

You can order an infrared laser* or LED (or buy a green laser pointer like mine and block only the green) and shine it toward an IR photodiode.

So what?  What does this accomplish?

Well the photodiode will sense when the laser is shining on it AND WHEN IT ISN'T!  If an object or person passes through the laser, the photodiode will know!  People won't be able to see the beam or spot on the photodiode, so the system can be used for security purposes.  Ever see laser trip alarms in movies or video games?  This is how they would work!
 
*You could get away with a cheap red laser.  Check out this link that shows the steps for the DIY project.

Many garage doors have a system like this (probably using an infrared LED) to detect whether there is an object or person under the garage door as it closes.  You have probably seen this and may have, like me, had to jump over the beam while ducking your head if you want to close the door and get out at the same time!