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We spent more than 150 hours on in-depth testing to identify the top inkjet and laser printers you can buy. And our favorite overall printer is the Canon Pixma TS9120, which offers best-in-class print speeds and high-quality output for both text and graphics. For a printer that won't break the bank, Epson's WorkForce WF-2760 inkjet packs in features like an automatic document feeder and duplexing, while also turning in fast print and copy times. What All-in-One Printers Cost All-in-one printers sell for as little as $60 (£45/AU$90) for inkjet models, and $150 (£170/AU$200) for laser printers, with high-end models ranging...

DARPA was interested in creating a chip-scale laser optical gyroscope. Important for its ability to maintain knowledge of position without GPS, optical gyroscopes are used for precision positioning and navigation, including in most commercial airliners. The laser optical gyroscope has a length-scale sensitivity on par with that of the gravitational wave detector, one of the most precise measuring instruments ever made. But current systems that achieve this sensitivity incorporate bulky coils of optical fiber. The goal of the OwlG project was to realize an ultra-quiet (narrow-linewidth) laser on the chip to replace the fiber as the rotation-sensing element and allow...

A KMBC 9 News photojournalist's camera caught someone using what appears to be a laser pointer directed at Tom Brady's face during Sunday night’s AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. The first instance caught on camera was on a hand-off from Tom Brady to Sony Michel in the fourth quarter. The previous play was a punt that appeared to be muffed by Patriots' receiver Julian Edelman but was later overturned. Laser researcher Charles Cobb, DDS, MS, PhD., said based on the size of the spot, it looks like the person was sitting far back in the end zone, possibly in...

The weapon is 'mainly expected to be for Chinese police use' ___________________________________________________________________ A Chinese firm has developed a laser gun designed for police use that can set fire to protesters' hair or banners from a range of almost one kilometre. The general manager of the ZKZM fiber laser company, who asked to remain anonymous, said the weapon would "immediately" produce a "strong pain response" in the target but stressed it was designed to be "non-lethal". "The weapon is designed to do things such as setting fire to illegal banners at a protest or setting fire to the hair or...

Boffins in Shanghai, China, have been designing the world's most powerful laser. The team has already made history with its earlier invention, the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility have already set records. The machine is small enough to fit on a tabletop, and contains a disc, the width of a frisbee, which is made of titanium-topped sapphires.(Snip)This year physicist Ruxin Li and his team are planning on building a laser that will pack a mind-boggling 100 petawatt burst. Called the Station of Extreme Light, the team hopes the laser will be able to tear a hole in the fabric of...

A laser powerful enough to tear apart the fabric of space could be built in Britain. The major scientific project will follow in the footsteps of the Large Hadron Collider and will answer questions about the universe. The laser will be capable of producing a beam of light so intense that it will be similar to the light the earth receives from the sun but focused on a speck smaller than a pin prick. Scientists say it will be so powerful they will be able to boil the very fabric of space and create a vacuum. A vacuum fizzles with...

The Chinese are building a laser that is 10 trillion times more intense than the sun and could rip apart space. Physicists say that this laser could be operational as early as 2023. Physicist Ruxin Li and colleagues are breaking records with the most powerful pulses of light the world has ever seen. At the heart of their laser, called the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF), is a single cylinder of titanium-doped sapphire about the width of a Frisbee. After kindling the light in the crystal and shunting it through a system of lenses and mirrors, the SULF distills...

THE US Navy will mount a laser weapon onto a top-class warship, defence officials confirmed. Top Navy officials said the device is slated to be installed on the USS Portland by this autumn. Crucially, the prototype will not be used in combat, but may pave the way for high-tech lasers that will be used during warfare. Captain Brian Metcalfe said: “They’ve got what I call ‘power modules’ that control the laser that will just fit in those open and reserve weight spaces and then the laser itself gets bolted onto the deck. “It’s not going to be integrated into the...

A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers. Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossible: creating fusion energy based on hydrogen-boron reactions. And an Australian physicist is in the lead, armed with a patented design and working with international collaborators on the remaining scientific challenges. In a paper in the scientific journal Laser and Particle Beams today, lead author Heinrich Hora from the University of New South Wales in...

A sleek, subterranean X-ray laser set to be unveiled in Germany today, the most powerful in the world yet, has scientists in a dozen fields jostling to train its mighty beam on their projects. European XFEL will reveal - and capture in images - secrets at the sub-atomic level, promising breakthroughs in medicine, biology, energy, information technology and chemistry. It will map the molecular architecture of viruses and cells, render three-dimensional nano-scale snapshots and film chemical reactions as they unfold. Earth scientists should be able to duplicate and study processes occurring deep inside planets, including our own. "The laser is...

The laser, known as the Laser Weapons System (LaWS), may seem as though it were pulled straight from a James Bond movie, but it's entirely functional and can shoot with stunning accuracy, the U.S. Navy told CNN. The LaWS is currently deployed aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship, in the Persian Gulf. "Operationally, it works just like a laser pointer," Lt. Cale Hughes, a LaWS officer, told CNN. "There's a chamber inside with special materials that release photons." ... The $40 million system requires a team of three to operate it and a small generator to power its...

On Monday, Raytheon, a high energy laser system developer for the US army, said that it had bolted a laser to a U.S. Army Apache AH-64 helicopter and zapped an unmanned target at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The weapons test marked the first time a “fully integrated laser system” had successfully located and shot a target from a rotary-wing aircraft “over a wide variety of flight regimes, altitudes and air speeds,” the company said in a statement. Raytheon didn’t specify what the target was but said the helicopter’s laser “directed energy” on it from nearly a...

The United States Special Operations Command just tested a high-energy laser on the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, marking the first time such a weapon has been deployed aboard a rotary-wing aircraft. According to a press release from defense company Raytheon, the test was a complete success, “providing solid experimental evidence for the feasibility of high resolution, multi-band targeting sensor performance and beam propagation supportive of High Energy Laser capability for the rotary-wing attack mission.” Matthew Ketner, branch chief of the High Energy Laser Controls and Integration Directorate at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Virginia, shows the effects of...

Beam-Riding and Sail Stability by Paul Gilster on June 23, 2017 Breakthrough Starshot, the ambitious 30-year plan for launching small interstellar craft to a nearby star, depends critically on the sails that will ride a laser beam to 20 percent of lightspeed. In the essay below, James Benford takes a hard look at where we are now in the matter of sail stability, a subject he and brother Gregory have analyzed in their laboratory work. But as Jim points out, there is a great deal we still don’t know, emphasizing the need for a dedicated test facility in which deep...

MDA seeks laser-armed HALE UAV for counter-ICBM role Gareth Jennings 14 June 2017 The United States is looking to field a laser-armed unmanned aircraft to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) towards the middle of the next decade, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) disclosed on 13 June. In a solicitation posted on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website, the MDA Advanced Technology Directorate said it requires a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the payload capacity needed to carry a high-energy laser system payload to high altitudes for Boost Phase Intercept (BPI) of ICBMs in the 2023 timeframe. "The...

Lockheed Martin (LMT)said it has finished developing a 60 Kilowatt (kW) laser system and is now getting ready to hand it over to the U.S. Army. The aerospace and defense firm claimed in a press release Thursday that in testing earlier this month the laser beam system achieved a 58kW blast, a world record for a laser of this type.

Devious humans have given green lasers a bad name. Aiming a laser at an aircraft or the flight path of an aircraft is illegal according to a 2012 U.S. federal law. Jail time awaits offenders. Don’t point at a police officer either.... But if you mind your manners, a green laser is one of the best tools available to amateur astronomers eager to share the wonders of the night sky with the public. There’s simply nothing better to point out constellations, comets, individual stars and satellites in the night sky. Amateurs love ’em! So does the public. Go to a...

The video that will chill the blood of every American tank crew: ISIS obliterates M1 Abrams tank with handheld Russian missile - showing just how vulnerable US armor is Clip shows Russian Kornet anti-tank guided missile home in on tank It hits the back of an Iraqi M1 Abrams tank which erupts into flames National security analyst says it shows US-made tanks are all but obsolete Incident makes an irrefutable case for the US Army to acquiring active protection systems, Dr Dan Goure says Turkey purchased 800 of the missiles in 2008 for $70m - delivery was completed before the...

A WestJet pilot sought medical attention after a laser strike during a flight to Fort McMurray last month, airline officials say. The laser was shone into the cockpit of a WestJet aircraft on Aug. 22, WestJet spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said in an email. The flight landed safely in Fort McMurray, but the next flight was cancelled until a replacement co-pilot could be brought in. Pilots are trained to look away to protect their eyes in the event of a laser strike, but the pilot was advised to seek medical attention as a precaution. "A laser has the potential to cause...