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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?"
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?"
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
so it does not work with sharks?
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.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Even with that technology, I still don't think we will be able to find your genitalia. Sorry.
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.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
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.
With all those perverts around, my advice to beautiful women is to keep your T-shirt wet at all times.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey