Highly Directional Terahertz Laser Demonstrated

eldavojohn writes "A new paper published this week in the journal Nature Materials announces a successful demonstration of highly directional terahertz semiconductor lasers. You might not think it's a big deal that some Harvard and University of Leeds researchers (funded partially by the US Air Force) figured out how to better direct lasers; but this means the ability to see what's in someone's pockets and clothing, at a distance of possibly hundreds of meters, or farther. The big benefit is that they are lower in energy than X-Rays and are less invasive, since they cannot pass through water or metal. Coming soon to an airport near you or buzzing around on board a drone in civilian airspace?"

Comments

One thing this technology will never be able to do

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell if you are just glad to see me.

Not without adding an fMRI.

Plus flying cars?

[mangu]

The Wired article has a sidebar with "Featured Articles", one of them is "Flying Cars are Coming".

Does this tell anyone about how soon this laser will have real world applications?

Re:Plus flying cars?

[Dunbal]

Does this tell anyone about how soon this laser will have real world applications?

      I guess it all depends on which side of the fence you're on. I consider myself open minded. I can see regular cars equipped with these, shooting down the flying cars with a snigger. On the other hand, I can see them mounted on flying cars too. Strafing runs through heavy traffic could make for a very interesting drive to work in the mornings.

      Ahhh, so many possibilities.

Re:Plus flying cars?

[AliasMarlowe]

Does this tell anyone about how soon this laser will have real world applications?

Especially since the terrahertz waves still won't show what's hidden in folds of flesh, beneath pendulous breasts, or in body cavities. If the objective is real security through scanning people (as opposed to costly and annoying theatrics), it would have to be a lot more intrusive.

Re:Plus flying cars?

[maxwell demon]

Oh, the terrahertz waves show everything. It's only the terahertz waves which are that limited.

SCNR

Re:Plus flying cars?

[PopeRatzo]

real world applications?

My cat would love this thing. You should see how she chases the laser all over the house.

And what fun for me if she catches this one!

Re:Plus flying cars?

[hoggoth]

I hope you know that while your cat is playfully chasing that little dot the invisible infra-red light coming out of that toy at several times the power of the visible beam may blind your cat.

Re:Plus flying cars?

[Foobar_]

If it's a laser pointer made with a red (670, 650, 635 nm), blue (445 nm), or violet (405 nm) laser diode, there's absolutely no infrared emitted.

If it's a properly made diode-pumped solid-state laser pointer (532 nm green, 473 nm blue, 404 nm frequency doubled violet) there's an infrared filter in the optical train which removes the large amounts of invisible pump light and leaves only the visible green.

If it's a crap green laser pointer (e.g. the "high power" green pointers sold on eBay and the like) then there is a real possibility the manufacturer omitted the IR filter to increase profits and/or the balloon-popping potential of the pointer. Check with a laser power meter and an IR-passing filter to verify the lack of IR output.

If no such tools are available, use a camera sensitive to infrared, block the visible beam with a filter, and check that no IR is coming out. IR-passing, visible-blocking filters around the house include the tinted plastic windows on remote controls and the front panels of remote-controlled devices, exposed color photo film negatives, and the disks of coated Mylar film inside floppy disks. Those last two should never be used as filters to observe the Sun due to the fact they totally pass IR and you can cook your retina in seconds without realizing anything bad is happening.

Infrared leaks may not be collimated like the green beam and will be visible (on camera) as a beam, cone, or ugly spray of light coming out of the filtered device.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_pointer#Infrared_hazards_of_DPSS_laser_pointers

There are reflected light hazards to worry about with all lasers. For example, shining the laser onto a smooth or polished floor in the direction of your pet will result in some light making a dot on the floor and most of the light bouncing off into your pet's eyes. If you can see the laser's reflection light up your pet's face, you may be causing eye damage.

If it's a high-power laser pointer (output over 5 mW) you are being carelessly negligent in its operation if you're waving it around in any situation where people or animals can get hit in the eye with its beam. Safe eye exposure is probably much less for cats and dogs due to the presence of a tapetum lucidum which concentrates light hitting their retina, their much larger pupils which take in much more light, and active suppression of the blink/turn reflex due to the fact they're chasing that dot and don't want to look away from their quarry.

I for one...

[sv_libertarian]

Welcome our new spy laser wielding overlords.

In related news...

[fahrbot-bot]

The big benefit is that they are lower in energy than X-Rays and are less invasive, since they cannot pass through water or metal.

...sharks disappointed.

Re:In related news...

[Surt]

Not the sharks with frickin' jetpacks.

Re:In related news...

[Shark]

There's a jetpack? I didn't get the memo...

Re:In related news...

[mysidia]

Sharks can still use them, as long as the laser is head mounted and they point it at their above-water target, But I think the sharks would prefer one of these anyways.

Oh God

[CasualFriday]

So now airport security officers can see my genitals from hundreds of feet away?

Re:Oh God

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you're wearing tinfoil underwear.

Re:Oh God

[Anonymous Coward]

Hot, isn't it! No need to unzip to flash anymore. I hope lots of kids get these too.

Re:Oh God

[Anonymous Coward]

Wearing tinfoil underwear will be a detainable offense - you could be hiding something in there! Like your dignity, for instance.

Re:Oh God

[EdIII]

So now airport security officers can see my genitals from hundreds of feet away?

Even with that technology, I still don't think we will be able to find your genitalia. Sorry.

Re:Oh God

[Beardo the Bearded]

Dude, I'm 33 years old. I'm married and I've got two kids.

It has been years since anyone has been interested in my genitals, and I kind of miss the attention.

Re:Oh God

[wagnerrp]

Yes, but you can still hunt them down and beat them up in the parking lot when they make jokes.

Re:Oh God

[CasualFriday]

This is unbelievably depressing. also, I love how there is a button at the bottom of your post that says "parent".

Re:Oh God

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Given that even water would deflect these lasers, peeing yourself should be a sufficient means of blocking them.

Re:Oh God

[Chih]

No, you'll still have to be pretty close ;)

Re:Oh God

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, that's a relief.

Re:Oh God

[SpongeBob Hitler]

Well, that's a relief.

I'm sure this news is slowly making its way into the bowels of the TSA. When they find out, they'll shit themselves.

Re:Oh God

[Zerth]

So now airport security officers can see my genitals from hundreds of feet away?

Worse, they'll know who to pull out of line so they can nick the most change during the pat down.

Re:Oh God

[rwa2]

Speaking of tinfoil underwear, NPR had something on special underwear you could buy that would have notes just for your TSA screener to read, like "for your eyes only" or "contents larger than they appear" or some customizable message.

OK, so it was one of the fake stories on "Wait,wait, don't tell me", but it still sounded awesome... and only a matter of time...

Re:Oh God

[mysidia]

Hm... new fashion: clothing with embedded water-holding cells.

There's gotta be a backlash against all these privacy-compromising technologies at some point.

Part of the whole reason we wear clothes is to protect our privacy and prevent people from seeing what's underneath.

Nobody has any permissible reason to see through our clothing without a search warrant. We need to fix our clothing so these new technology toys are no longer capable of seamlessly compromising our privacy.

Re:Oh God

[HTH NE1]

It's the Nude Laser! We need to get Agent 86 on this.

Oh, he is? How about Agent 86.1?

Oh, ugh! Um, any chance we have an Agent 99.1?

PSA

[JamesP]

For non-visible wavelenghts (or anything near it) it's not a LASER it's a MASER http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASER

Re:PSA

[Daniel Dvorkin]

The "M" in MASER stands for "microwave." The waves used here are non-visible, sure, but they're shorter than microwaves, closer to what's usually called infrared. And "laser," no longer capitalized, has entered the language as a word for any device that emits a beam of coherent EM radiation of whatever frequency -- thus you'll hear "IR laser," "X-ray laser," "gamma laser," etc. It would be pretty silly to insist on a separate word for each frequency band.

Re:PSA

[Beardo the Bearded]

LASER is no longer capitalized? Since when? I realize we tend to use Internet English (one rule of grammar: "fuck it") but when did we start activelt discouraging the use of CAPS LOCK?

Re:PSA

[SanityInAnarchy]

The waves used here are non-visible, sure, but they're shorter than microwaves, closer to what's usually called infrared.

So we likely call them lasers because no one wants to figure out how you'd pronounce iaser?

Re:PSA

[Anonymous Coward]

They're THz waves... clearly, it's a taser. :D

Re:PSA

[thegarbz]

Just because people are lazy doesn't mean LASER it stops being an acronym. Even if when everyone writes it lowercase it is still wrong simply because of this fact.

Re:PSA

[osu-neko]

Just because people are lazy doesn't mean LASER it stops being an acronym. Even if when everyone writes it lowercase it is still wrong simply because of this fact.

Incorrect. When it reaches the point that everyone does it that way, it's standard usage, and doing it differently is archaic. English has no central standardization body to make authoritative rules on the language (unlike French), so in English, "standard usage" and "correct" are synonymous, regardless of historic arguments about how it might have been done differently in the past.

Re:PSA

[Surt]

LASER is no longer capitalized? Since when? I realize we tend to use Internet English (one rule of grammar: "fuck it") but when did we start activelt discouraging the use of CAPS LOCK?

SINCE WE HAD TO GET PEOPLE TO STOP SHOUTING!

Re:PSA

[Surt]

Nope, they became right when it got formalized as a word in the dictionary:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laser

Re:PSA

[Surt]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laser

  1 : a device that utilizes the natural oscillations of atoms or molecules between energy levels for generating a beam of coherent electromagnetic radiation usually in the ultraviolet, visible, or infrared regions of the spectrum
2 : something resembling a laser beam in accuracy, speed, or intensity

Re:PSA

[Beardo the Bearded]

I USE CAPS LOCK AT WORK FOR DRAFTING.

No, seriously, I do have it on most of the time at work, but that's because it's for work. I'm not usually ready TO UNLEASH THE FURY.

Re:PSA

[Surt]

And even the formal standards bodies for English are in favor of laser.

Re:PSA

[hedwards]

Laser hasn't been capitalized in a really long time. Capitalization only applies when it's an acronym and abbreviations, laser on the other hand is a word in its own right.

Re:PSA

[Soldrinero]

I'm a physicist; I work in a laser lab. I never capitalize 'laser', and I've never seen it capitalized in any contemporary publication. Frankly, explicitly capitalizing acronyms gets really annoying once they enter common usage. It just gets in the way of effective communication.

Re:PSA

[elashish14]

I too feel that it's pointlessly pedantic to distinguish such groups. But if it isn't, why don't we just call it EMASER, where the EM stands for electromagnetic.

Re:PSA

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't THz me, bro!

Re:PSA

[rcw-home]

Capitalization only applies when it's an acronym and abbreviations, laser on the other hand is a word in its own right

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Re:PSA

[longhairedgnome]

From OED Online:

1. Any device that is capable of emitting a very intense, narrow, parallel beam of highly monochromatic and coherent light (or other electromagnetic radiation), either continuously or in pulses, and operates by using light to stimulate the emission of more light of the same wavelength and phase by atoms or molecules that have been excited by some means. Orig. treated as the name of a particular kind of maser (optical maser) emitting visible light, laser is now the general term for all devices of this kind, whatever the wavelength of the emitted radiation.

1960 N.Y. Times 8 July 7/6 The Hughes device is an optical maser, or ‘laser’, (the ‘l’ standing for ‘light’). 1960 Aviation Week 18 July 97/2 The optical Maser is also referred to by the term Laser. 1960 Daily Tel. 29 Dec. 9/4 The laser, a device for amplifying light which could conceivably be developed to produce a searchlight beam that would reach the moon, is still a paper project as far as British scientists are concerned. 1961 Jrnl. Appl. Physics XXXII. 178 [Paper received 13 June 1960.] The Fabry-Perot interferometer has been suggested for use as a high~mode LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) resonator. 1961 Observer 19 Feb. 5/2 The new ‘laser’, as it is called, uses a mixture of helium and neon gas to produce a continuous beam of infra-red radiation... Previous devices have produced only brief pulses of light. 1962 Science Survey III. 27 The principle of the maser has been extended also to solid materials and, in addition, it has been found possible to make a light maser (or ‘laser’) that produces, not microwaves, but visible light. 1963 Electronics Weekly 2 Jan. 1/4 The new high-power laser uses a six-inch by half-inch ruby. 1963 Monsanto Mag. Mar. 9/2 Early lasers absorbed energy from a strong burst of ordinary white light, organized it, then expelled a powerful beam of a different kind of light. 1963 Daily Tel. 24 Oct. 19/4 Already in metal working the term ‘Gillette power’ is used as a measure of the laser's metal-vaporising capabilities. It represents the number of stacked razor blades through which a beam can bore its way. 1964, 1966 [see HOLOGRAM]. 1969 Sci. Jrnl. Apr. 53/1 Lasers have been operated which produce visible radiation, ultraviolet, infrared and even submillimetre radiation. 1970 [see HOLOGRAPH v.]. 1971 Sci. Amer. June 21/3 A laser is a device for generating or amplifying a beam of light whose waves are both monochromatic (all the same wavelength) and coherent (all in step). The light beam emitted by a laser can be made almost perfectly parallel, its divergence angle being theoretically limited only by diffraction effects. 1972 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 266/2 The first purely chemical lasers requiring no external source of energy to initiate or sustain laser excitation have been operated successfully.

2. attrib. and Comb., as laser beam, bomb, light, reflector; laser-guided, -ignited ppl. adjs.; laser-heat vb.; laser disc, a disc on which signals or data are recorded to be reproduced by directing a laser beam on to its surface and detecting the light reflected or transmitted by it; laser-driven ppl. a., powered by a laser beam; laser printer, a non-impact printer in which a laser is used to form a pattern of dots on a photosensitive drum corresponding to the pattern of print required on a page. 1963 Monsanto Mag. Mar. 10/3 A *laser beam can generate intense heat10,000F. or higherin a small area. 1970 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 28 Aug. 17/1 A laser beam, focused through the lens of the eye, can weld a detached retina back into place by creating scar tissue. 1970 Daily Tel. 31 Jan. 4/2 Scientists..maintain that the *laser bomb..is a theoretical possibility. 1972 Guardian 29 June 4/3 The drawback to the laser bomb is that the plane producing the beam must keep it on target until the bomb's impact. [1978 Electronics & Communications in Japan LXI. 97/1 The signal is read from the laser vi

Re:PSA

[Anonymous Coward]

I would say radar also falls under this category.

Re:PSA

[jpmorgan]

So what you're saying is this is more of a TASER.

I suppose the upside is that when they start using this to snoop on people, it'll confuse the fuck out of police departments.

Re:PSA

[Omniscient Lurker]

And sonar, and scuba. Any others?

Re:PSA

[JDevers]

Sure, it is an acronym...but the minute the word itself entered common vernacular, it might MEAN L.A.S.E.R., but it is spelled laser.

Re:PSA

[BraksDad]

...It would be pretty silly to insist on a separate word for each frequency band.

Especially since the frequency bands are somewhat arbitrary to nature. What is the "Visible" Spectrum? There are just a few life forms that may argue with us.

Re:PSA

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the L in laser stands for "light", which happens to be composed of EM waves, even if he human eyes can't see them?

Re:PSA

[Anonymous Coward]

"The "M" in MASER stands for "microwave." The waves used here are non-visible, sure, but they're shorter than microwaves, closer to what's usually called infrared."

If it was a terahertz device, it could be called a Taser.

Re:PSA

[thegarbz]

That's the problem isn't it, not everyone does it that way or we wouldn't be having this discussion to begin with. Most academic literature still refers to LASER as an acronym. Laymen using laser is what put it in the dictionary. I expect you'll all be crying when the computer well and truly gets renamed as the "harddrive" simply because everyone does it that way.

Which begs the question, will a slashdot reader's head explode when he reads this very sentence because of the context of the first 3 words?

Re:PSA

[rdnetto]

M = micro
So I guess that makes this a TASER, right?

Re:PSA

[geogob]

The day the acronym was accepted in the English dictionary as a word, it stopped being capitalized as an acronym. The word maser has also been introduced into the English vocabulary, thus not requiring it to be treated as a acronym.

Re:PSA

[careysub]

That's the problem isn't it, not everyone does it that way or we wouldn't be having this discussion to begin with. Most academic literature still refers to LASER as an acronym. Laymen using laser is what put it in the dictionary. I expect you'll all be crying when the computer well and truly gets renamed as the "harddrive" simply because everyone does it that way. Which begs the question, will a slashdot reader's head explode when he reads this very sentence because of the context of the first 3 words?

The phrase "begs the question" was coined to describe a logical fallacy, in this case a type of circular argument in which the premise assumes the conclusion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question). You are using the phrase in an increasingly common, but irrelevant manner.

I am not at all sure that you should be taken as an authority on the correct usage of English terminology.

Re:PSA

[mcgrew]

This would be "Pubic Hair amplification by Stimulation of Emitted Radiation. In short, it's a PHASER.

"Set phasers on peep, Tom."

Re:PSA

[maxwell demon]

So, how many cases of capitalisation of "laser" do you find in titles of recent preprints? I can't find a single one. (Well, one in a journal name where the complete journal name is in uppercase, but that doesn't count, of course).

"Less invasive than X-rays"

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Um, no, I know when I'm being X-rayed. A remote sensing system that can see what I have in my pockets a mile away, without my knowledge, is highly invasive.

Yes, yes, they mean "invasive" in the medical sense: the frequencies they're using don't penetrate inside the body. But it would be nice if they'd clarify the meaning without being so blase about it. "DHS will be able to scan anyone, anywhere, any time for anything -- what could possibly go wrong?"

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[Anonymous Coward]

"...the frequencies they're using don't penetrate inside the body."

Exactly! Now you know where to put your secrets/valuables/C4.

I give you a hint; There is not much sunshine.

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[Anonymous Coward]

I give you a hint; There is not much sunshine.

My butthole emits blinding white rays of heavenly light you insensitive clod!

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[hedwards]

They could get sued for sexual abuse? I mean gussy it up however they like, at the end of the day this is viewing people naked without permission, or really over their objections. Were this a more rational area of discussion, we'd all be able to admit that this is sexual abuse, and it's not even grey area either.

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking of highly invasive, the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution should render this illegal:
    "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

This would lead to yet another way to do a warrantless search (and possibly seizure) of a person, house, papers, or effects.

This is highly (read illegally) invasive!!!

You can read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[oliverthered]

What Pluto?

Made of mostly water, a body, not much sunshine.

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[hawk]

The good news is that they can only do this with highly directional lasers--as opposed to conventional lasers, which are not directional, I suppose coming from the use of non-coherent light . . .

Really, now. Is this a weak candidate for April 1 next year?

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[Anonymous Coward]

Won't someone think of the children!?!

In fact, wait, no, DON'T think of children!

Re:"Less invasive than X-rays"

[Just Some Guy]

Yes, yes, they mean "invasive" in the medical sense: the frequencies they're using don't penetrate inside the body.

That's correct: the radiation will be absorbed by the first layer of watery tissue it encounters. Like, you know, your cornea. Will your airline tickets come with a coupon for cataract surgery?

so it does not work with sharks?

[Joe The Dragon]

so it does not work with sharks?

Re:so it does not work with sharks?

[Delarth799]

Not yet, but those bastards keep making the technology smaller and smaller and more powerful! One day they will make it small enough to be mounted onto a shark, and at that point someone else will have cloned raptors. The sharks and raptors will grow up together and then the world will end, taken over by raptors riding sharks with laser beams, all because science couldn't stop to think about the consequences!

Re:so it does not work with sharks?

[The_mad_linguist]

That's OK, the latest episode of Mythbusters confirmed that sharks can't swim while wearing electronic gear.

Re:so it does not work with sharks?

[noidentity]

Correct. This is our chance to rebel, to have weapons the sharks cannot match, so finally be free of our masters...

Re:so it does not work with sharks?

[cowboy76Spain]

I have been told from someone who knows better that the sharks have begun training in order to hold as much time as possible outside of water. It is a conspiracy sponsored by the Government (who do you think pays for all those military subs, and what are they doing down there?)

.

We have to act now and begin training ourselves in order to be able to spend as much time under water as we can.

Arms race

[spleen_blender]

I will not be surprised to find soon there is an inexpensive way of shielding against this.

Then again, if you've got nothing to hide, why do you have tinfoil lined pockets, citizen?

Re:Arms race

[maxwell demon]

That's no normal tinfoil, that's antiseptic tinfoil. It's purely for hygiene!

Re:Arms race

[Local ID10T]

I will not be surprised to find soon there is an inexpensive way of shielding against this.

Perhaps even a free method of dampening ones clothing to the point of interfering with the beam -I'll call it sweating!

Re:Arms race

[hedwards]

I predict that protective cup manufacturers will go back to making them the old fashioned way, out of metal.

Re:Arms race

[flanktwo]

Or peeing your pants.

Re:Arms race

[Anonymous Coward]

Only people who have something to hide sweat in front of law enforcement....

Re:Arms race

[lras]

Perhaps this microwave-proof clothing works?

Futrama didit!

[RevWaldo]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/10322/futurama-bottle-cap

But this prolonged exposure to radiation is making me thirsty...

.

Violence-minded people...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Strafing runs through heavy traffic could make for a very interesting drive..."

U.S. society: Violence-minded people want to spend taxpayer money for endless war.

Re:Violence-minded people...

[SanityInAnarchy]

Well, it works both ways. In my entertainment, I'm violence-minded, but in reality, if I were ever to harm another human being, politicians -- especially those who start wars -- would be towards the top of my list.

Re:Violence-minded people...

[Dunbal]

U.S. society: Violence-minded people want to spend taxpayer money for endless war.

      Oh no, this would be privately funded! :)

Re:Violence-minded people...

[xmundt]

Greetings and Salutations...
          Reminds me of a great wargame from the late 70s/early 80s called "Car Wars". Basic idea was that you COULD have that gatlin gun mounted on your vehicle, and, blow away the other idiots on the road. There was also a crossover with AD&D where, among other fun things (can you say Fireball Spell?) you could invoke a mechanic demon who was outside time so could rebuild your entire car while it was traveling down the road at 120 MPH.
          Be careful what you wish for, though. Remember that no matter how good a shot you think you are...there are at least a dozen people around you that are better.
          Pleasant dreams
          dave mundt

DARPA seems interested in THz lasers

[dronkert]

Grant for the inventor of a THz ellipsometer: http://science.dodlive.mil/2010/08/07/darpa-looks-to-young-researchers-for-game-changing-ideas/

Business opportunity!

[tomhudson]

Since it won't pass through metals, quick, someone patent the tin-foil bra!

Oops, too late, now it's in the public domain :-)

Re:Business opportunity!

[Anonymous Coward]

You have a year to file, IIRC.

No kidding.

[pushf popf]

Dude, I'm 33 years old. I'm married and I've got two kids. It has been years since anyone has been interested in my genitals, and I kind of miss the attention.

I think there are a lot of people with delusions of being supermodels.

Most of the people I see on planes are ugly as hell and getting me to stare at them naked all day on a scanner would require some serious compensation.

Re:No kidding.

[Surt]

Yeah, if you have to be a scanner, definitely be a scanner for the first class passenger line.

Re:No kidding.

[GrumblyStuff]

Some people just don't like to be exposed. It's not always a matter being oggled. It may be perceived or real inadequacies. http://cbs4.com/local/tsa.screener.arrest.2.1681203.html

Re:No kidding.

[Garble Snarky]

Because old rich people are attractive?

Re:No kidding.

[Surt]

Their trophy girlfriends tend to be. I mean, there's no avoiding scanning some of the wrong sex unless you're bi, so assuming you're a horny male heterosexual screener, your odds are best with the first class passengers.

Re:No kidding.

[rdnetto]

Depends on your definition of attractive. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that.

Re:No kidding.

[Surt]

Well, start with the most common definition in our society, assuming that is most likely to intersect with the largest portion of the potential screener population.

Re:No kidding.

[rdnetto]

Why use the most common definition? If it's for the benefit of the scanner, use their definition of attraction. Of course, then it becomes much harder to give a generalised answer.

Re:No kidding.

[Surt]

It's for the benefit of the abstracted, hypothetical scanner. Since I wanted to make a generalized statement about what would be good for the scanner, I have to treat him as a singular construct, best represented by the average views of the class.

Agnostic

[Cur8or]

"All technology is neutral, including the death ray" - Prof. Farnsworth.

THz laser...

[Ryukotsusei]

Aren't all lasers in the THz range? I'm pretty sure all visible light and company are in the THz range.

Bogus info from Tired

[Animats]

Tired Magazine blows it again.

The article from Tired is bogus. The "remote generation of terahertz radiation" is described in this paper. They generate terahertz radiation at the target by hitting it with a big enough pulse to heat it up into a plasma. This is a classic spectroscopy technique; hit something with a big laser pulse and look at the spectra coming back.

Nobody is going to look into pockets that way, unless they burn through first. It may be useful for analyzing toxic and hazardous materials from a distance. A possible application is something that first responders point at a spill from a distance, and it comes back with an analysis. Assuming the energy transfer can be made small enough so as not to ignite anything.

Re:Bogus info from Tired

[Surt]

So your claim is that the TSA cares enough about passenger wellfare to not plasmify their customers? I think you underestimate their devotion to providing a comfortable, pleasant travel experience.

Re:Bogus info from Tired

[tomhudson]

So what will happen is they think the person standing behind you is a terr'rist, so they zap you ... you're converted to plasma, and they can then look at the reflected wave to see if the terr'rist really was a terr'rist or just RMS.

Look at the bright side - you won't have to waste any more of your life standing in line with your shoes off and smelling everyone else's stinky foot-cheeze.

Return fire.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see in a few years once every other government agency has some sort of spy drone out there checking up on you, souped up versions of the anti-mosquito LASER system will start appearing on roof tops throughout the US in order to deal with the larger nosy pests.

impenetrable barrier of protection

[gamecrusader]

time to go bact to the middle ages bring out the suits of armor walking around on one of those would hide u from these lasers

wet suit.

[oliverthered]

Time to buy a wet suit, or as this is military, a full metal jacket.

Re:wet suit.

[JSBiff]

"Time to buy . . . a full metal jacket."

Yeah, I bet having Ammo in your pockets or bags will really expedite your trip.

Re:wet suit.

[TubeSteak]

Yeah, I bet having Ammo in your pockets or bags will really expedite your trip.

When security lines are long, getting whisked over to special screening is a
much quicker process than having to wait 30+ minutes for the regular screening.

Declaring a weapon in your luggage usually ensures it will get where it's going,
since the airport worker who misdirects that bag is going to land in some deep shit.

Re:wet suit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Find the golden bullet and win a free trip to Gitmo!

Bites

[dbIII]

Nigella Lawson (good looking host of cooking shows) already beat you to it.

Awesome!

[multimediavt]

I am totally patenting the Faraday Suit(TM) when this hits the air!

Re:Awesome!

[RivenAleem]

Or a wet suit.

Co-author checking in

[Mkoms]

Hey guys, I'm one of the co-authors of that Nature Materials paper. Please let me know if you have any technical questions about the work. I'm not an expert on terahertz semiconductor lasers or their applications (I was really only involved in the surface patterning of the facet with the spoof plasmonic structures), but I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have.

On the plus side...

[lennier]

... if they use this system for airport screening of terrorists, it will get a guaranteed 0% false negative rate.

Plus it will speed up the boarding queues!

Privacy Invasion yet again

[hardburlyboogerman]

Looks like I'd better stock up on tin foil.
At the very least,make some figures for them to see--in the shape of 1 finger salutes.

Time to get wet

[mysidia]

less invasive, since they cannot pass through water or metal.

So they won't work, as long as you only go outside days that it's rainy and make sure all your pockets and such are always soaking wet. Keep extra bags of water to ensure that remains the case.

Snakes on the plane...

[flyingfsck]

So this would be a long range pocket snake detector...

But unzip DNA

[Jeprey]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/10/30/1216230/How-Terahertz-Waves-Tear-Apart-DNA?from=rss

No danger of ingnition, IIRCC

[PinkyGigglebrain]

If the initial pulse is short and intense enough there would be little risk of ignition even from a volatile material.

If I remember this right it is a matter of pumping enough energy into a layer of material to vaporize it almost instantly, the sold=>vapor transition would cool the material by carrying away the heat of the initial pulse. As long as that pulse is really, really, really, short the total amount of heat added to the rest of the material is kept to a minimum.

This is also how LASIK works.

Watch out for perverts.

[Mr2cents]

With all those perverts around, my advice to beautiful women is to keep your T-shirt wet at all times.

Is that a banana in your pocket or are you...

[gearsmithy]

oh wait, it is a banana

They don't pass through water?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then what happens when I have water in my pocket?

Good timing

[Anonymous Coward]

Just in time for shark week!