Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Femtosecond Lasers Used To Color Metals

Posted by kdawson on from the gold-ring-to-match-her-eyes dept.

Maximum Prophet writes "An optics professor and a postgrad have developed a way to use ultra-short pulses of laser light to etch nano features into the surface of metals so that they can absorb or reflect specific wavelengths of light. This is very similar to the way that butterflies get the color in their wings."

21 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. WOW! by JoshEanes · · Score: 5, Funny

    wow, butterflies use high energy lasers to get the color on their wings!?!? now, we have to worry about lasers in the hands of the insects...

    1. Re:WOW! by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

      wow, butterflies use high energy lasers to get the color on their wings!?!? Not to self: don't fuck with butterflies.
      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    2. Re:WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Which begs the question, why are you showering with your parrot?

    3. Re:WOW! by BytePusher · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't know about your butterflies, but my butterfly emits light! Take that you insensitive clod!

    4. Re:WOW! by BotnetZombie · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not to self: don't fuck with butterflies
      Double negative... Must - not - not - imagine - this - scenario
  2. How could you possibly mention lasers and insects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    without using the word "overlords?"

  3. I, for one by Malevolent+Tester · · Score: 5, Funny

    Welcome our new femtosecond laser wielding butterfly overlords.

    --
    If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
  4. Re:OK, I didn't read the FA yet.... by JeepFanatic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Are they ill tempered?

  5. Oblig. XKCD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What a coincidence http://www.xkcd.com/378/

  6. Sure it was the butterfly by techpawn · · Score: 4, Funny

    No one EVER suspects the butterfly...

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
  7. Colour me cynical by GauteL · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. but when I see things like "professor and a postgrad have developed", I assume that the postgrad did all the work and the professor took most of the credit.

    1. Re:Colour me cynical by mea37 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Careful saying things like that around the professor, or he will indeed colour you cynical. Using a laser.

  8. taste the rainbow by davidwr · · Score: 2, Funny

    I ate a CD once. It tasted nothing like Skittles.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  9. Hey! Where's the by wiredog · · Score: 4, Funny

    "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag! Come on! They're giving lasers to butterflies!

    --

    Best Slashdot Co
  10. Re:Butterflies with lasers by Binestar · · Score: 4, Funny

    *I* googled Gloom Wing Moth and I got his post, your post, this post and the post you're going to make in reply to it. Google is faster than real time today.

    --
    Do you Gentoo!?
  11. New upgrades to "Shark Army(tm)" project by DrYak · · Score: 2, Funny

    wow, butterflies use high energy lasers to get the color on their wings!?!?


    Forget the sharks !
    Let's make an army of butterflies with freakin' femto lasers on their head and take over the world with them.
    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  12. poll by Thornburg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Quick Poll:

    Did the poster and/or editor intentionally make the ambiguous statement about butterflies, knowing that it would lead to a discussion 80% about laser-wielding butterflies, with real article-related content left to battle with the usual jokes/OT garbage/etc for the remaining 20% of comments?

    Possible Answers:

    () Yes, and it's awesome.

    () Yes, and it sucks.

    () No, but it's awesome.

    () No, and it sucks.

    () CowboyNeal forced them to.

  13. Re:Butterflies with lasers by ThreeGigs · · Score: 3, Funny

    Gloom Wing Moth

    Phew!

    Stop playing with the timestream folks, our universe was almost pinched off in a temporal loop.

  14. Prior Art by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

    Paint.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  15. Muhammed Ali vs the CD by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Funny

    tastes like a rainbow, stings like a bee

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  16. uh huh... by r00t · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sure. Your "shoulder" or "arm". Riiiigh...

      <0)
      ( \
       X
    8====D

    Not that there's anything wrong with owning a p3n15 b1rd.