
At heart, a laser is really just an electron that's been pushed into releasing a little energy, in the form of a particle of light—a photon. The atom that electron comes from doesn't have to be anything fancy, or toxic. In fact, it can even be an atom of something you might like to put in your mouth.
Edible-laser pioneer Theodor Hänsch once said, "Anything will lase if you hit it hard enough," and to prove his point, he partnered with Arthur Schawlow in 1970 to build lasers out of a gelatin-and-dye mixture very similar to Jell-O.
That delightful fact is from a story in Popular Mechanics, written by Olivia Koski. It's all about edible lasers, specifically the steps involved in building a laser out of a gin n' tonic. Naturally, there's a catch. Turns out, the gin n' tonic laser is not the world's most efficient—a blast from a 20-watt carbon dioxide laser stimulates the electrons in the drink into emitting only 0.00001 watts of laser light. Which is also invisible to the naked eye.
But still, isn't it nice to know that "Pew pew" and "Nom nom" are concepts that can be combined?
Via Dr. Skyskull
Image is actually a demonstration of quinine in a gin n' tonic fluorescing under a black light. If you don't have patience/carbon-dioxide laser to pull off a gin n' tonic laser, this would make a nice substitute party trick. Some rights reserved by Todd Huffman.
Writing for the New York Times, Heather Murphy has a fascinating story about the unexpected results of a bone marrow transplant. When a patient receives a bone marrow transplant, the patient’s own cells are destroyed and replaced with cells from a donor. Thereafter, the patient is a “chimera,” with two sets of DNA. It’s believed […]
I’m not an engineer, but I can’t stop watching this hypnotic and oddly satisfying video of tying rebar.
The Australian Acoustic Observatory project, described by its creators as a kind of “Google Street View of sound,” is a new acoustic sensor network of hundreds of microphones and digital audio recorders distributed across multiple remote ecosystems on the continent. The solar-powered system will record animal and natural sounds continuously for 5 years. According to […]
There are few intellectual exercises better than a good game of chess against a capable opponent, which is why a lot of old hands at the gameplay it online. But there’s still nothing like the tactile thrill of moving a knight into checkmate. (Or sweeping the pieces off dramatically when you lose.) That’s why we’re […]
Got a real music junkie on your list this year? It’s a good bet that they already have a solid pair of earbuds, but probably nothing quite like these Seeds Earphones. Here’s the thing: Wireless earbuds are all the rage right now, and there are a lot of good reasons for that. But for true […]
When it comes to the qualities of a good project manager, you hear a lot of talk about “soft skills” like leadership ability and confidence. And where does confidence come from? It comes from people who are dead certain they know the right steps to take. In other words, you’ve got to master the hard […]