Researchers at St. Andrews University in Scotland have created a new technique for delivering drugs to individual cells which is essentially an incredibly precise laser fired from a fiber the width of a human hair. Despite this rather inflammatory article at the Daily Mail saying it will be used to cure cancer, the real applications are very specific and very practical — as is often the case with impressive-sounding medical technologies like MRI.

The ability to puncture a cell wall with ease and precision with an extremely non-invasive tool like a fiber (paired with another for drug delivery) is a coup for scientists testing at the cellular level. The new technology requires no focusing and is actually very much like a microscopic light saber when I think about it. Paging Dr. Vader…
[via Physorg]

A new blue laser diode, developed by Sanyo, could help increase the capacity of Blu-ray discs. Even if it does, however, we’re still a few years away from seeing any such discs.

The new diode emits a beam of 450 milliwatts, which would be powerful enough to write onto two additional data layers on a Blu-ray disc. While current Blu-ray discs max out at two, 25GB layers, discs produced using this new Sanyo diode would see their capacity double—four, 25GB layers adding up to a total capacity of 100GB per disc.

Write speeds would also increase, moving up to 12X. That means you’d be able to write an entire disc in just 10 minutes.

But again, this fancy new diode was just developed, meaning it won’t used in the production of Blu-ray discs for at least one year, if not two.

And they say physical media has no future, ha!

Giving a man of any age a powerful laser is like giving a bear an AK-47: it’s in his very nature to point it at things and look menacing. Thankfully, the bear is rarely able to do any damage – no trigger finger – but the man, be he 16 or 65 or 33, will definitely aim it at something that will inevitably reflect the laser back into his own eyes, rendering him temporarily blind and making him freak out thinking that he is now sightless. I speak, friends, from experience.

WickedLasers makes, well, wicked lasers. Instead of the standard red-dot laser pointer you buy at Odd Lots, WickedLaser imports amazingly powerful and expensive lasers for the home hobbyist.

So read on, laser troopers, for a bit more info and a contest.

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It’s about time. The storied laser pointer has, let’s admit it, gotten pretty boring over the years. People have returned to a simpler time of retro pointing, using old yardsticks and their trusty, dusty fingers, and the last time anyone laughed at the laser-pointer-on-someone’s-face gag, the elder Bush was in office. So a big thank you is in order to Alpay Kasal for inventing a way to use laser pointers with projectors to play some old-school video games. The whole idea is for the laser pointer to work as a type of mouse emulator, so the sky would theoretically be the limit as it pertains to what you’d be able to do with this sort of setup.

It’s patent-pending, so the actual behind-the-scenes stuff hasn’t been revealed but apparently an outdoor test on the public streets is on the docket, so that’ll be something to see. Check out the above video for the system in action.

[via Gizmodo]

Let freedom ring

The laser turns 48 today! (Just as important, if not more so: It’s also Megan Fox’s birthday. She turns 22.) Crazy! To celebrate this, Wired has put together a list of some of its best laser-related stories, everything from laser-etched iPhones to 100 kW Naval weapons.

No, it’s nothing to get too excited over, but perhaps you have nothing better to do on this crummy Friday than troll random blogs looking for a way to kill a few minutes. We’re here to help in that regard.

Straight out of the University of Texas at Austin comes the world’s most powerful laser. I just assumed that most lasers were very powerful, but apparently the great state of Texas has the best one until someone else can come along and build an even more powerful laser or mounts this same laser to a shark’s head.

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In a smashing blow against my neighbor Carmine, Australia has outlawed high power laser pointers. Like Carmine, Australians cannot be trusted with high powered lasers and, like Carmine one night last summer, they’ve been shooting them at airplanes.

WA Police have reported people pointing lasers at a Royal Flying Doctor plane, a police helicopter, a rescue helicopter, and several commercial and private airplanes.

That’s right: About five aircraft have been hit so far. That’s considerably fewer people in danger than those who eat the Bloomin’ Onion each year, but no one’s outlawed that yet. Where is the fairness?

Remember the Laser TV from Mitsubishi that was unveiled at CES? Well, Mitsu finally dated and named the new fangled TV this morning. The LaserVue will launch Q3, but still no word on pricing. Along with news of the LaserVue, Mitsu announced a slew of new 1080p DLP HDTVs ranging in size from 60- to 73-inches dubbed Diamond. The Diamond series features 120Hz, something called Dark Detailer for high contrast images and Blue Light Accent. These DLP sets will be available this month.
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You don’t need an imaginary cellphone to project text onto someone’s person. This device, which can be put together after a quick trip to the hardware store, places laser text onto any surface; it’s powered by magic, as a matter of fact.

You’re given a maximum of 20 characters to play with at any one time, which is more than enough to project dumb slogans like “PINK” or “JUICY” or “JAZZ LOBSTER.”

via Make Blog

Right now, plugged into my Mac I have an iPod Touch, an SD card reader, and a currently charging Palm Centro. Did you know that you can also control a laser-guided robot with your Mac? It’s true!

Scienticians from Georgia Tech and Emory University have developed just such a robot, called the EL-E, which is capable of tracking objects targeted by a laser and picking them up, all powered by a Mac Mini.

Later, they’re planning on upgrading to a Mac Pro, after which the computer/robot hybrid will scour the globe for Sarah Connor.

Scientists Unveil Mac mini-powered Robot [Daily Tech]

You know how much I like tech with a purpose that’s something other than more and more megawidgets or terabloops. Hence, a line or two on this laser than can detect diseases.

Developed by a team at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a laser device that detects molecules in one’s breath that may hint at diseases. It can also detect diseases that aren’t specifically respiratory in nature, like cancer.

For example, the device detected carbon monoxide at five times the normal level in a smoker. Use that info with other data and you could have a powerful tool that makes early detection the norm.

Laser light may detect asthma [Times of India via Drudge Report]

I’m currently debating whether I should feel safe or frightened knowing that Boeing’s Advanced Tactical Laser has been successfully installed on a C-130H. The high energy chemical laser was completed on the 4th of this month in New Mexico at Kirtland Air Force Base. The entire system weighs an astonishing 12,000-pounds. Testing of the system along with a demonstration will occur sometime next year where the laser will be fired from a rotating turret on the belly of the C-130H at mission-representative ground targets. Previous tests were done in June on a ‘low-power’ setting where the laser found and tracked moving and stationary targets. I just soiled myself.

Press Release

The Germans have invented what is supposedly the world’s first backpack-mounted laser cleaner. Clearly there was a need for such high-powered cleaners. There’s no real explanation of how the laser cleans, but we can assume that it burns away layers of dirt. Probably not for use by children under three years of age, or any of us here, really.

The laser will make the rounds in the UK in November, demoed at universities and super villain hideouts.

World First Backpack Laser [CIProcess via Sci Fi Tech]