Laser

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.

In order to give something a fancy, personalized touch, there's nothing quite like custom-engraving it. Regular folks could soon be able to do so themselves – sort of – using the not-at-all-funnily-named LaserPecker Pro.

Scientists have developed a tiny new kind of bio-compatible laser that could, theoretically, be implanted inside living tissues without causing them damage.

A new laser "scarecrow" is helping farmers to protect their sweetcorn crops from marauding birds.

France has announced it will expand its military space assets and defend them using systems that may include anti-satellite lasers. The Minister of the Armed Forces said the government will spend an additional €700 million to produce new surveillance satellites with self-defense capabilities.

Statistically it’s pretty much a given that alien life is out there, whether that’s Martian microbes or intelligent life beaming comms through the cosmos. Now, a new telescope array has joined Breakthrough Listen, scanning for flashes of laser light that alien civilizations might be giving off.

A team at the University of Maryland are developing a more accurate version of the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment that was left behind by Apollo 11, 14, and 15 between 1969 and 1971 that allows scientists to measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon extreme accuracy.