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Thread: Scientists Bend Laser Beams....

  1. #1
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    Laser Warning Scientists Bend Laser Beams....

    Wednesday, April 15, 2009


    Scientists have found a way to bend lasers and may use it to bend lightning as well.
    A team led by Pavel Polynkin of the University of Arizona sent a special sort of laser beam pulsed instead of steady, and asymmetrical so that one edge was brighter than the other through a series of filters.
    They found that the beam actually curved a bit, by about 5 millimeters (about 1/5 of an inch) over the total distance of 60 centimeters (2 feet).
    "People expect lasers to do certain things, like propagate in a straight line," Polynkin told Scientific American. "The fact that a laser beam actually curves is quite unusual."
    Since the laser pulses are so intense, they zap the air they pass though, leaving behind an ionized plasma trail. That trail might be conductive enough to form a natural pathway for lightning to travel along, points out Jrme Kasparian at the University of Geneva.
    Kasparian, who's been trying to coax lightning from thunderclouds using straight plasma beams, thinks Polynkin's curved beams could be used to divert lightning toward or away from specific targets.
    "It would be fun to see curved lightning discharges," he told New Scientist.
    Polynkin's teams' study was published in the April 10 issue of Science.


    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,516196,00.html

  2. #2
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    Default

    You can see ionisation in this clip

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHJh...eature=related
    http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3985/laser.gif

    Doc's website

    The Health and Safety Act 1971

    Recklessly interfering with Darwins natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





  3. #3
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doc View Post
    You can see ionisation in this clip

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHJh...eature=related

    I just sold mine a few months ago.

    Now I dont want to think what three room sized femtosecond pulse systems cost, compared to a nice steel door, but meet the short range ray gun designed to intimidate intruders:

    http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/0...corridor_.html

    That had to be about a 1 million dollar demo.
    Steve

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