Blasting lead with 160 lasers makes it incredibly strong, then explode

When lead is quickly brought to extremely high pressures using 160 laser beams, it suddenly becomes 250 times stronger – and then it explodes Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2223915-blasting-lead-with-160-lasers-makes-it-incredibly-strong-then-explode/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Come to know the Pleiades, or 7 Sisters

At this time of year, for all of us around the globe, the Pleiades star cluster culminates – reaches its highest point in the sky – around midnight. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/november-is-the-month-of-the-pleiades…

A laser-sighted toxic goo gun is killing feral cats in Australia

A device that kills feral cats by squirting their fur with toxic gel they lick off while self-grooming is being used to protect endangered Australian animals Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2223493-a-laser-sighted-toxic-goo-gun-is-killing-feral-cats-in-australia/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Physicists Irreversibly Split Photons By Freezing Them In a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Physicists from the University of Bonn and the University of Cologne have succeeded in cooling photons down to a Bose-Einstein condensate, causing the light to collect in optical “valleys” from which it can no longer return. The findings have been published in the journal Science. Phys.Org reports: A light beam is usually divided by being directed onto a partially reflecting mirror:…

Physics Experiment With Ultrafast Laser Pulses Produces a Previously Unseen Phase of Matter

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Adding energy to any material, such as by heating it, almost always makes its structure less orderly. Ice, for example, with its crystalline structure, melts to become liquid water, with no order at all. But in new experiments by physicists at MIT and elsewhere, the opposite happens: When a pattern called a charge…

With a Laser, Researchers Say They Can Hack Alexa, Google Home or Siri

Researchers in Japan and at the University of Michigan said Monday that they have found a way to take over Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri devices from hundreds of feet away by shining laser pointers, and even flashlights, at the devices’ microphones. The New York Times reports: In one case, they said, they opened a garage door by shining…

Researchers Transmit Energy With A Laser In ‘Historic’ Power-Beaming Demonstration

“First the first time, hundreds of watts of power were wirelessly transmitted hundreds of meters [video], with an integrated system that ensured the safety of operators and bystanders,” writes an anonymous Slashdot reader — sharing a new press release from the U.S. Naval Research Lab. “This could be the first step towards drones that never have to land…” According to the…

Extracting hidden quantum information from a light source

Current super-resolution microscopes or microarray laser scanning technologies are known for their high sensitivities and very good resolutions. However, they implement high light power to study samples, samples that can be light sensitive and thus become damaged or perturbed when illuminated by these devices. …