Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

NEWS ABOUT: laser

More About:  weapon • Pentagon • Internet • bees • military • technology • Russia • aviation • radar • innovation • aliens • light bulb • mosquito • safety • UFO • Nissan • dance • IED • US military • England • malaria • Moscow • police • Boeing • prison

Police Test Laser to 'Blind Rioters'

British police try new technology after summer riots

(Newser) - In the wake of this year's rioting , British police are testing a laser that would temporarily blind looters with a wall of light, the Telegraph reports. The $40,000 laser can reportedly reach people up to 500 yards away and spot them in poor visibility with an infrared scope.... More »

Team Builds 'Anti-Laser'

Device can absorb any laser beam

(Newser) - Yale University scientists have created the world's first anti-laser, a device capable of completely absorbing any laser beam. The device functions in the opposite way that a laser does: It traps light beams and forces them to bounce around until their energy is dissipated, the BBC r eports. Its creators... More »

New Way to Fight Pirates: With a Laser

Weapon emits harmless but effective green light

(Newser) - Somali pirates, beware: British scientists are developing a laser that works by confusing would-be attackers from more than a mile away, the Daily Mail reports. The laser hides the ship in a veil of green light, preventing pirates from easily steering toward or aiming at their victims. “We are... More »

Guy Gets 15 Months for Laser Pointer Prank

Unfortunately, it was a police helicopter he was pointing it at

(Newser) - Annoying: Pointing a laser pointer at anyone. Stupid: Pointing it at a highway patrol helicopter. But that’s what a 19-year-old California man did last year—while the helicopter was assisting in a burglary investigation, no less—and Nathan Ramon Wells was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in prison for... More »

UFOs Are Attacking Our Sheep: Brits

'Laser lights' responsible for wounds, says group

(Newser) - A group of British extraterrestrial hunters are claiming that the bizarre wounds suffered by English sheep over the last 10 years are the result of UFO laser probes. Sheep have lost eyes, organs and flesh to the light blasts , they report. The UFOs roam a 50-mile corridor in the west... More »

Top American Inventions

(Newser) - President Obama has called on Americans to innovate their way to a speedy economic recovery. In that spirit, Live Science rounds up the top 10 US innovations:
  1. Flight. The Wright Brothers’ 12-second flight in 1903 ushered the world into the age of aviation.
  2. Atomic bomb. The Manhattan project left a
... More »

'Star Wars' Scientists Take Aim at Mosquitoes

Anti-malaria Weapons of Mosquito Destruction can zap bugs 100ft away with lasers

(Newser) - Rocket scientists who worked on ways to beat Soviet missiles a generation ago are now using their lasers to zap mosquitoes, the Wall Street Journal reports. Researchers looking for ways to combat malaria have rejigged "Star Wars" technology to create a contraption that can pick off individual mosquitoes from... More »

Pentagon Closer to Air Laser Wars

(Newser) - Barack Obama's transition team is studying the Pentagon's first test of a plane firing a laser weapon, and may nix the $4.3 billion project—but the US military is still nearing its dream of laser warfare, New Scientist Tech reports. The Airborne Laser, once touted as defensive, could easily... More »

Silver Screen's Ray Guns Become Battlefield Reality

Ground troops testing laser weapons, tagged for missile-defense systems, too

(Newser) - Ray guns aren't just for Flash Gordon anymore, the Economist reports. The US military and defense contractors are experimenting with “directed energy” weapons systems on the battlefield and in labs, most of which help troops zap unexploded bombs and incoming fire. One model, the Zeus, is designed to more... More »

Nissan's New Safety System Uses Bee Logic

Lasers will mimic compound eyes to detect, avoid obstacles

(Newser) - Nissan is set to unveil new collision-avoidance technology modeled on the behavior of bees, PC World reports, with a small robot car to demonstrate the system in Japan next week. The automakers’ engineers have developed laser range-finders that mimic the insects’ ability to adjust their path and avoid collisions by... More »

Russian Ravers Lose Sight After Laser Show

Vision loss as high as 80% and 'impossible to regain'

(Newser) - Several partygoers at a Russian rave lost part of their sight to damage from a laser light show, Reuters reports. Dozens have appeared at Moscow hospitals for treatment of retinal burns. Loss of vision is as high as 80% and "regaining it is impossible," according to one ophthalmologist.... More »

Move Over, Heisenberg: Electron Caught on Film

Elusive negative charge stars in Swedish researchers' breakthrough video

(Newser) - Electrons are tiny, fast, and, until recently, impossible to capture on film. But a short, super-slow-mo video offers the first direct look at the wily subatomic particle. Coaxing the reclusive electron into the limelight took major maneuvering by Swedish scientists, LiveScience reports. The paparazzi of physicists caught the negative particle... More »

Laser-Humvee Will Hunt IEDs

Boeing's 'Laser Avenger' diffuses bombs with a super-hot beam

(Newser) - Boeing has developed a laser-equipped Humvee designed to disarm IEDs, CNET's military tech blog reports. The weapon system, known as the “Laser Avenger,” consists of a 1-kilowatt laser added to an anti-aircraft Humvee-mounted missile turret, and can neutralize a bomb by shooting the super-hot laser into it until... More »

13 Stories
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   Betty Confidential   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Fark   |   Timelines   |   The Frisky   |   Geek Sugar   |   NewsOne