• About Geek Beat
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Login
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Geek Beat

One of the world’s most recognizable technology news brands, delivering daily tech news, tips, and reviews.

  • News
    • Apple
    • CES
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Google
    • How To’s
    • Microsoft
    • Music
    • Mobility
    • NABShow
    • Photography
  • Episodes
  • Reviews
  • Videos
  • Connect With Us
Home > News > Anti-Lasers Useful for Computing, But Not Mass Destruction
Anti-Lasers

Anti-Lasers Useful for Computing, But Not Mass Destruction

February 20, 2011 by Gord McLeod

Anti-Laser

Anti-Laser. There is so much promise in those words, such fodder for the imagination. One likens it to anti-matter, rife with the prospect of mass destruction should it come in contact with one single atom of ordinary matter.

The truth of the matter is, though, that the anti-laser both lives up to that comparison completely and yet fails to as well. With the anti-laser, two beams enter. Nothing leaves.

The anti-laser is a contraption that absorbs and extinguishes specific wavelengths of light, and has potential uses all over the place; one particularly geeky use is in photonic computing, computers that shuffle photons around with lasers instead of relying on that ancient electron science that is SO 20th century. The anti-laser could be used to create fast optical switches for such computers of the future.

There are plenty of other applications for the technology, most of which probably haven’t even been thought of yet. Medical researchers have come up with some ideas for it as well, such as in tumor imaging.

So far I’ve seen no speculation on the anti-laser’s use in warfare; no thoughts of stopping beams from laser guns or any such thing. But this is a brand new technology, so who knows? This is a rare case where the future looking less bright is actually a GOOD thing.

(via Ars Technica)

Filed Under: News Tagged With: science, technology

About Gord McLeod

I'm a writer and game designer with a background covering everything from IT work to programming to the graphic arts. I'm intensely interested in everything game, gadget and science related.
Find me at Fiction Improbable, my fiction writing website, at @gordmcleod on Twitter, and at my Google+ Profile too.

Recent Posts

  • Best CBD Oil Brands to Buy
  • Go Mic Mobile Wireless System for Mobile Filmmakers
  • A RAY OF LIGHT
  • Keep Devices Charged Anywhere in the World with the Twist Plus World Charging Station
  • Final Leaked iPhone 7 Details Before The Big Event

Recent Comments

  • Ricardo Garza on Streambox Announces 360 Live Video Streaming to YouTube
  • Sunbya on Review: Blue Lola Headphones bring unparalleled quality
  • Jay Anderson on CES2016 – Autel Robotics X-Star Quadcopters
  • Scott Ellis on CES2016 – The Parrot DISCO – The Worlds First Fixed Wing Consumer Drone
  • Ricardo Garza on CES2016 – The Parrot DISCO – The Worlds First Fixed Wing Consumer Drone

Tags

3D Amazon Apple apps audio bluetooth business CE Line Shows 2013 CES computers fitness gadgets games gaming geek geek beat GeekBeat geek house Google health how-to ios john p. kickstarter Microsoft mobile Mobility Music nabshow new building Other photography Reviews robots Samsung social media speakers storage tech technology travel Tutorial vehicles video vlog

Copyright © 2023 · Geek Media on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in