Posted on 08/16/2013 10:07:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In quite an eerie feat, physicists have floated microscopic diamonds in midair using laser beams.
Researchers have already used lasers to levitate extremely small particles, such as individual atoms, but this is the first time that the technique has worked on a nanodiamond, which, in this case, measures just 100 nanometers (3.9 x 10-8 inches) across, or more than 1,000 times thinner than a fingernail.
In the new study, the physicists from the University of Rochester relied on the fact that a laser beam, which is made up of photons, creates a tiny force that usually can't be felt.....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
>>What could that lead to?<<
Damn near everything is scaleable.
Indoor skydiving for very small people?
To da Moon Alice!
Lucy in the Sky, with Diamonds!
For some strange reason the song “Tiny Bubbles” comes to mind. Don’t know why.
Beam me up, Scotty.
This could lead to:
Beam me up, Scottie, without dematerialization.
When I was in college 35 years ago, one of the chemistry professors got a brand-new argon ion laser. 18kW in, one watt out... an awful lot of visible light at the time.
I watched the technicians install it. I think it was manufactured by Spectra-Physics, but memory is not reliable after this many years.
Anyway, they were adjusting it with the cover off, and I could see - inside the water-jacketed laser tube - these tiny little particles, flitting around within the beam. They were close to the mirrors on each end, and they looked like tiny moths flying around a tiny flame.
I asked one of the techs about them, and he said “oh, those are zombies.” He asked another tech “hey, have they ever figured out what causes the zombies” and the other guy said “no, they’re some kind of tiny particles that they can’t eliminate from the manufacturing process.”
I wonder if they were floating on photon momentum.
Tractor beams.
Some great diamond heist scenes in some future James Bond movie.
Improved laser particle separation and improved optical tweezers. Advances in single biological cell separation. Think improvements in fighting diseases.
Haven’t seen that one, but just looked it up... sounds like a good movie.
Read the book as a young teen.
Chris Christie starring as Baron Harkkonen in "Dune: Potomac.". :)
no, they will use his obvious talent and put him in a sand worm costume.
Lol...Lucy In The Sky. :)
Or maybe Diamonado?
That would be scary. The hardest natural substance being whipped around like that would be quite a weapon.
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