Laser

Radio waves travel poorly through the water, which makes it difficult for divers or submersibles to wirelessly transmit information to the surface. Scientists are trying to change that, though, by developing an underwater version of Wi-Fi.

There are some places that a solar-powered rover just can’t reach, like the Moon’s polar regions that are permanently in shadow. Now, ESA has outlined a new system where a lander shines a laser at a rover to keep it powered from miles away.

Responsible for millions of dollars in crop losses annually, the red palm weevil is a flying beetle that lays its eggs inside date palm trees. It could soon be possible to detect such infestations earlier than ever, using fiber optic cables.

All previous records absolutely pale in comparison to the new record holder for the world’s fastest camera, boasting a mind-boggling rate of 70 trillion frames per second. That’s fast enough to capture light waves in movement.

While there are drugs that help reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in joints, those medications can have unpleasant side effects in other parts of the body. An experimental new light-based system, however, is being designed to change that.

We already knew that copper kills bacteria on contact, as it releases ions that rupture bacterial cell membranes. The material could soon do so faster than ever, however, thanks to a new laser-based surface treatment.

Even the smallest of deformations in structures such as buildings or bridges can lead to cracks, so the sooner that they're noticed, the better. A new laser-based system is designed to do just that, quicker and cheaper than ever before.

While it's important to keep aircraft wings ice-free, the application of chemical deicers before takeoff can be problematic. German scientists are working on something that could help, in the form of a laser-based treatment for flight surfaces.

Archaeologists have used laser technology to map a 100-km (62-mile) Maya stone road that could have been built 1,300 years ago to help with the invasion of an isolated city in modern-day Mexico at the command of the warrior queen Lady K’awiil Ajaw.

Terahertz radiation is extremely useful but, traditionally, tricky and expensive to generate. Scientists at TU Wien have come up with a new source of terahertz radiation that they claim breaks records for efficiency and the breadth of its spectrum.

In 2018, researchers created the world’s fastest-spinning object that reached 60 billion rpm – now that seems like the teacup ride at Disneyland. The same team has broken its own record, creating a new nano-scale rotor that spins five times faster.

Researchers from MIT have revealed the very first images of a human generated through a novel laser ultrasound imaging technique. Unlike conventional ultrasound, the new technique does not require any skin contact with the body.