FemtosecondLaser
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Floating plasma display makes fairies a reality
See that teensy Tinkerbell-shaped light above? That's not CGI -- that's a real floating display, and it's completely touchable too. Mid-air plasma displays aren't that prolific yet, but they're not exactly new either. However, floating lights created using existing techniques can usually burn skin, since every "voxel" (a pixel in 3D space) is made by heating molecules with nanosecond lasers. In order to make them safe to touch, a team of researchers from the University of Tsukuba, Utsunomiya University, Nagoya Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, used lasers that fire bursts of plasma every few femtoseconds instead.
Researchers develop femtosecond laser that can diagnose, blast cancerous tumors
Researchers at the University of Tennessee's Center for Laser Applications have developed a femtosecond laser that can non-invasively diagnose, map, irradiate and burn cancerous tumors. Utilizing a beam that pulses at one-quadrillionth of a second, the technology is able to seek out growths and obliterate them with an increased burst of intensity. "Using ultra-short light pulses gives us the ability to focus in a well confined region and the ability for intense radiation," says Associate Professor of Physics Christian Parigger. "This allows us to come in and leave a specific area quickly so we can diagnose and attack tumorous cells fast." The swift, precise technique can avoiding heating up adjacent, healthy tissues and has potential for use in outpatient procedures, particularly for people afflicted with brain tumors. For now, however, the scientists are working with the non-profit University of Tennessee Research Foundation to bring their tech to market. Roll past the jump for the press release and a glimpse of the laser in action.
MIT's laser camera can photograph around corners, render your camouflage useless
You know, we'd love to meet this Ramesh Raskar character. Possibly even shake his hand, or secretly become injected with a pinch of his DNA. You see, he's devoted his life to proving that the impossible is actually possible, first conjuring up a 6D "super-realistic" image system just over two years ago. Now, he's onto bigger and better things... things like cameras that can see around corners. Granted, this concept isn't exactly a new one -- LIDAR-equipped robots have been discovering hidden objects for years, but the mere thought of cramming this technology into a camera has us salivating. Auntie Beeb has a new piece up on the technology, and it actually does an exceptional job of explaining the technobabble. Put simply, the created prototype utilizes an ultra-short, highly intense burst of laser light (a femotosecond laser, if you have to know) to light up a scene; from there, it bends around corners and bounces back, using algorithms to figure out what's inside of the room based on the bounce points. We're guessing it'll still be a few decades before this gets wrapped into a mid-range DSLR, but we're cautiously hoping for a working mockup at CES 2015. Seriously, we just marked it down. Don't disappoint us, guys.
Spintronics magic appears again, aims to vastly accelerate data storage and retrieval
As the list of "awesome things that won't ever happen" grows ever longer, we've got a brilliant team of French physicists who have seemingly concocted a method for storing and retrieving data on hard discs that's around 100,000 times faster than usual. Yes, 100,000x. The trick is based around spintronics, an almost mythical procedure that involves the use of lasers, magnetic sensors and mutant abilities to shuffle data around at a dizzying rate. This particular method, however, improves upon the comparatively sluggish attempts of the past, as it uses photons that "modify the state of the electrons' magnetization on the storage surface." In layman's terms, this all means that the HDD you buy in 2098 will probably operate significantly faster than the one you picked up during Circuit City's going-out-of-business sale. Got it? Good.
