geekosystem

Replicas of video game weapons are fun, but you can only get so much enjoyment out of waving a toy laser around and shouting, "Pew! Pew!" Sometimes you want to step your game up, and that's exactly what Patrick Priebe has done. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that show Dead Space Plasma Cutter replicas, but Priebe's actually fires lasers -- and it burns stuff.

After years and billions of dollars spent in development, the Navy's Laser Weapon System (LaWS) has been deemed ready for primetime, meaning the directed-energy weapons will start making appearances on the decks of U.S. military ships beginning next year. The solid-state laser, which will make stage its coming out on the USS Ponce, is still in it prototype stage, and isn't yet capable of eliminating a missile or enemy jet, but Navy officials are confident that it could disable other ships, and as for drones...well, you can see it blasting one out of the air during a test in the video below.

What's a good tool that can lead presentations, point out constellations, and occupy cats with perfect precision? Laser pointers, of course! And while they can be really useful, lately it seems like they're not being used right. They're getting used to annoy moviegoers in theaters or get kids prison time. Unwise, folks. Now a new study shows that laser pointers -- especially the green ones -- are even more dangerous than we often assume.

Cocaine addiction is notoriously difficult to treat, but researchers working on ways to fight it may have a unexpected new weapon in their arsenal -- lasers. Recent research in the field of optogenetics suggests that using lasers to turn certain parts of the brain on and off could help to curb addicts craving for the drug. Take that, cocaine addiction! Pew pew pew!

You might think we live in a world where people would realize that pointing lasers at aircraft is a bad idea. You might think that, but you're wrong if you do. On March 29th, 2012, 19-year-old Adam Gardenhire was arrested for exactly this -- pointing a green laser at a bunch of aircraft. He won't be doing it for some time, though, since he's earned himself 30 months in jail.

When firefighters rush into a burning building, they're equipped to deal with extreme temperatures. They're not as equipped to locate the people they're there to save through the smoke and fire. Researchers of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy are working on a new way to see through the chaos of a fire using holographic imaging. It's officially the future.

Frightened of rocks from outer space falling on your head today? You can be forgiven for that, as it's a going concern this afternoon. Researchers at the University of California -- Santa Barbara and California Polytechnic State University are proposing a way to put your troubled mind at ease, though. They want to launch an array of solar-powered lasers into orbit that they say could not only deflect or vaporize incoming asteroids, but also be put to uses like powering future spacecraft as they explore the solar system.

Northwestern University researchers can put a tiny little feather in their hat today as they have announced the creation of the world's smallest working laser -- one about the size of a virus. The incredibly miniaturized laser can operate at room temperature, and, even more impressively, seems to defy the diffraction limit of light using a nano-scale laser cavity that's shaped like a bowtie. Bill Nye must be so very proud right now.

You guys, hold the phone. Drop whatever you're doing right now. Is it dropped? Yes? Good. We have tractor beams now! Like where you zap a thing with a laser and pull it toward you with beam power? Yeah, those! We have those now. Even though they are super tiny and effective only on microscopic items like silica spheres suspended in water for right now, they are still working tractor beams, and now that we have the principle down, they are pretty much only going to get cooler from here. If you can't get excited about that, I don't even know what to say, as I have to assume you are already dead inside.

Studying things that are smaller than we can see often seems like no big whoop now that we're working with things like nanoparticles every day in labs across the world. However, seeing things is one thing, while actually being able to study them is another. Researchers at the University of Freiburg have developed a way to use tubes of light to trap microorganisms in a laser cage and image them for closer study.

Full disclosure: The Xfire Bike Safety Light is not the laser I've always wanted on my bicycle -- that fantasy has always been more of an anti-personell sort of a deal. It is a pretty nifty gadget, though. Mounted like a traditional bike blinker, the Xfire projects two laser lights that form a sort of virtual bike lane around a bicycle, so that rather than just seeing where you are, drivers can actually see how much space you take up on the road and -- ideally -- go several inches out of their way not to strike you with their car.

No self-respecting mad scientist or alien despot would ever dream of conquering the galaxy without their trusty mind-controlling ray gun. Thanks to a group of Harvard researchers, this venerable addition to the science fiction armory may be one step closer to science fact. The team has successfully used a series of brief laser pulses to stimulate the neurons of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, effectively taking control of its brain.

Listen, we know that when you were younger you sometimes used your NES Zapper as a regular gun when playing manhunt with the rest of the neighborhood kids. Now, thanks to a kind of dangerous mod from North Street Labs, you can turn your NES Zapper into a real, working laser, and subsequently set everything on fire.

Japanese researchers have formulated a way to create a super-thin mineral film that simulates human tooth enamel. The discovery could lead to patches that could leave teeth looking whiter and prevent tooth decay, even for people on a steady diet of sugary snacks like, you know, everyone.

3D printing is getting easier, more cost effective, and more household friendly every year. Some of its most impressive applications, though -- like its potential in the world of medicine -- won't be making their home debuts anytime soon. This is because while printing, say, a Mario statue in your Makerbot is very simple, printing things on a nanometer scale is still very hard. Doable, but very, very hard. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have made a step toward simplifying that task, though, using a laser beam to place single molecules on structures just a few nanometers wide.