First and foremost, we apologize for the lack of updates over the weekend. Our brains were addled by the warm and beautiful weather across the west coast and we were seduced away from the Internet into the unfamiliar and strange zone known as 'outside' and were exposed to things called 'sunlight' and 'fresh air'. We thoroughly enjoyed it hated it.
Anyways, in further celebration of the Laser's birthday last Friday, we have some more exciting laser-related news: the DARPA funded Advanced Tactical Laser designed by Boeing was tested for the first time last week. This aircraft mounted laser is intended to be used for anti-missile defense and tactical air to ground strikes with little to no collateral damage. Also, reader Ben has informed us about the Vulcan laser, which is the most powerful laser ever built!!! According to the article:
In experiments, the Vulcan laser focused one petawatt (1,000 trillion watts) of power into a spot about one tenth of the width of a human hair. The pulse lasted for one picosecond (one trillionth of a second), heating the target to 10 million Celsius, one tenth of that required for nuclear fusion.
This is why I'm (10 million degrees Celsius) hot.
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