Comments on: Laser > GRB

By: defectiverobot

defectiverobot — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:46:39 +0000

“Welcome to Bad Astronomy’s ‘Skeptologists on Ice!’”

Ben Stein: “I’ve been giving myself shock treatments.”
PZ Myers: “Up the voltage.”

By: DaveKan

DaveKan — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:54:04 +0000

Yeah, but can it hammer a six inch spike through a board with its…

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:04:08 +0000

The had a Pwatt laser years ago…. Call me when you get to 1000 P watt, atto sec., ultra chirped, kilo beam fusion.

By: Mike Peel

Mike Peel — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:46:56 +0000

Apologies for being nit-picky, but don’t you mean the _known_ universe, i.e. that which use Earthlings have seen? I’d hate to be on this planet if some extraterrestrial civilization thought “Ha! So they think they have the brightest light source in the universe! We’ll show them!”, followed up by a demonstration…

By: drksky

drksky — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:37:56 +0000

“I don’t think that ‘the heavily shielded goggles’ would help protect you against a direct hit from that laser!”

I can’t help help myself:

“Ze goggles, ze do nothing!”

By: Gavin Flower

Gavin Flower — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:59:14 +0000

I don’t think that ‘the heavily shielded goggles’ would help protect you against a direct hit from that laser!

By: Michael Lonergan

Michael Lonergan — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:17:54 +0000

Grant said:
“Do the designers have this dream where they’re standing on top of a pyramid wearing these sun-god robes while millions of naked women scream and throw little pickles at them?”

No, that’s my dream. They’re not screaming. They are laughing. Oh, the little pickles… well never mind about that.

By: Ed Davies

Ed Davies — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:09:59 +0000

“BTW, can this be used to signal ET?”

Probably.

http://seti.harvard.edu/oseti/index.html

By: Davidlpf

Davidlpf — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:57:04 +0000

People who should not be allowed to use this laser Homer Simpson, Adam Savage, Tim Allen.

By: Jasso

Jasso — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:25:11 +0000

Edward-

Starting from deci:

deci 10^-1
centi 10^-2
milli 10^-3
micro 10^-6
nano 10^-9
pico 10^-12
femto 10^-15
atto 10^-18
zepto 10^-21
yocto 10^-24

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:12:38 +0000

What is a femto second? Iam lost below micro.

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:58:16 +0000

So… is it like lasing a stick of dynamite?

Does it get field under “H” for “Toy”?

…wait, one more…

Do the designers have this dream where they’re standing on top of a pyramid wearing these sun-god robes while millions of naked women scream and throw little pickles at them?

Why am I the only one who has that dream?

By: Scott G.

Scott G. — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:57:29 +0000

My wife’s comment:
Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space! (Thanks, Genie!)

By: Joshua Zucker

Joshua Zucker — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:46:57 +0000

Is “more intensity (energy per square centimeter)” really true, or is it supposed to be “more intensity (energy per square centimeter per second)” or equivalently “(power per square centimeter)”?

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:28:13 +0000

I find it really ironic that the Google ad is for high power laser pointers.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:51:05 +0000

This may be the wrong place for this but…….

Sure it’s powerful, but can it be mounted on the head of a shark?

By: Carey

Carey — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:40:46 +0000

Ow. Could you please warn us before you do that again? Thank you.

The People of Haleakale

By: Blu-Ray-Ven

Blu-Ray-Ven — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:30:18 +0000

“peta is a prefix people will get to know in a year or two once terabyte drives prove too small to store very many illegally downloaded BluRay movies”

people better not illegally download me, thats rude

By: Wayne

Wayne — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:30:04 +0000

Cool, I’m glad they got it going full power. I was at a talk recently by one of the guys in charge of this thing, and he said they were “very close”.

To follow up on Jacco’s statement, the guy said that the length of the beam was comparable to its width, so they are making “light bullets”. He used that phrase several times, and I think it’s a good way to think about these pulses.

By: Bolo

Bolo — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:59:26 +0000

“It creates so much energy…”

You mean, “so much power.” The energy is likely to be extremely low, while the power very high–the advantage of having a brief pulse.

By: Michael Lonergan

Michael Lonergan — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:54:59 +0000

@Gareth: I vote the Twin Moons of Uranus.

BTW, can this be used to signal ET?

By: J. D. Mack

J. D. Mack — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:54:42 +0000

Why would the kid from The Brady Bunch be proud? ; )

J. D.

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:47:25 +0000

I think Brian Cox said that the LHC will use 150MW at full power, but that includes the magnets and the supercomputers. Wikipedia (pinch of salt and all that) says: “The size of the LHC constitutes an exceptional engineering challenge with unique safety issues. While running, the total energy stored in the magnets is 10 GJ, and in the beam 725 MJ.”

By: Todd W.

Todd W. — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:40:35 +0000

@Gareth

“Which planet shall we blow up first?”

If I wasn’t so fond of Mars, I would say a preemptive strike against it would be best. Can’t let Marvin take Earth out of the way just to improve his view of Venus.

By: DPA

DPA — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:12:05 +0000

hahah now that was an incredibly geeky old school reference. I actually just watched that a couple weeks ago.