Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EU Working On Most Powerful Laser Ever Built

Posted by samzenpus on from the that's-no-moon dept.

kkleiner writes "On the coattails of CERN's success with the Large Hadron Collider, Europeans and the world at large have another grand science project to be excited about: the Extreme Light Infrastructure project to build the most powerful laser ever constructed. These lasers will be intense enough to perform electron dynamics experiments at very short time scales or venture into relativistic optics, opening up an entirely new field of physics for study. Additionally, the lasers could be combined to generate a super laser that would shoot into space, similar to the combined laser effect of the Death Star in the Star Wars trilogy, though the goal is to study particles in space, not annihilate planets."

47 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. What if we tried more power? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

    1. Re:What if we tried more power? by ranulf · · Score: 1

      What about all the stuff in the atmosphere the laser will destroy before it hits anything in space? It's not like we need another hole in the ozone layer...

    2. Re:What if we tried more power? by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Sigh.

      --
      I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
    3. Re:What if we tried more power? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

      What about all the stuff in the atmosphere the laser will destroy before it hits anything in space? It's not like we need another hole in the ozone layer...

      Yes, but look on the bright side, everybody between 0 degrees E and 120 degrees E, would be treated to a rain of roasted bird meat.

    4. Re:What if we tried more power? by Synerg1y · · Score: 1

      That's a badass laser... 1w laser for "personal" use

  2. Already featured by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Slashdot has already featured at least one story recently about ELI. I can only assume that we're seeing this again because the possibility of shark jokes leads to more page views, which in turn generated more profits from advertising for this site's avarice-drunk proprietors.

    1. Re:Already featured by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 4, Funny

      It will be either the 'sharks with frikkin lasers atached to their head'-jokes, or an accumulation of these people who thought that the LHC would produce micro-black-holes getting all excited about blowing something up. Turning from black hole alarmist to Death Star alarmists.
      I wonder if these people are the same as the;
        - OMG the acidic rain will render the world uninhabitable! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG the LHC will end the world with a man-made black hole! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG they want to ship radio active waste to the moon! Think about the radiation! Think about the kids! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG you drove a car today, according to these models, that will raise the sea level three feet by next Thursday you idiot! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG the Mayan calender is going to finish us all! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG they want to teach the kids Darwinism! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG the Y2K bug! We must do something or we are all gonna die!
        - OMG Ponies!
      These people somehow never get tired of running around, waving their arms in the air like an evil Dervish... Just like some people are never getting tired of sharks / beowulf clusters / does it run Linux / your anus jokes... No matter how funny / annoying (pick one) that is, it is less harmful than the alarmist. So, I would really rather have you picking at the alarmist :-)

      --
      rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
    2. Re:Already featured by craigminah · · Score: 1

      One of the most spot on posts I've seen here in a while; touche. I'd be more fearful of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program but even that monstrosity won't FUBAR the ozone...the ionosphere and/or localized weather maybe, but rest easy, your beloved ozone layer is safe for now.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program

    3. Re:Already featured by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    4. Re:Already featured by Lord+Lode · · Score: 1

      You know, for this calibre of laser, it cannot be an ordinary shark...

    5. Re:Already featured by prefec2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It will be either the 'sharks with frikkin lasers atached to their head'-jokes, or an accumulation of these people who thought that the LHC would produce micro-black-holes getting all excited about blowing something up. Turning from black hole alarmist to Death Star alarmists.
      I wonder if these people are the same as the;

        - OMG the acidic rain will render the world uninhabitable! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      Well they said, acid rain destroys the forests. And it did. There was an significant increase in dead trees. The famous black forest became almost a no forest. So we did something about it and and now things are going to improve.

      - OMG the LHC will end the world with a man-made black hole! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      That are definitely other people, because they did not have any proof at all. While in the previous version, trees could be counted and their health could be determined. the latter folks did not even provide a sound theory.

      - OMG they want to ship radio active waste to the moon! Think about the radiation! Think about the kids! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      That sounds more like the first group. They calculated the risk to the ecosystem when a plutonium based reactor falls back to earth, breaks up in the atmosphere etc. However, shipping the waste to the moon or even into earth orbit is unbelievable expensive.

      - OMG you drove a car today, according to these models, that will raise the sea level three feet by next Thursday you idiot! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      You seem to have trouble to categorize things correctly. If earth temperature rises. Or to be more precise. When we have more energy in the earth system, then that leads to more melted ice in Greenland and Antarctica. However, that will not rise the sea level today. It will affect your kids and their kids. They have to move New York or convert it into some Venice. The IPCC is definitely not an alarmist group.

      - OMG the Mayan calender is going to finish us all! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      These guys are alarmists or even crazy. Simply because they have no proof. The only thing they have is a calendar, which ends after 6000 years. Well the world never ended when millions of calendars ended last year on December 31st. So why should that be different with that Mayan calendar. this is typical nonsense from people who have no insight into science.

      - OMG they want to teach the kids Darwinism! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      Ah now you referring to Christian fundamentalists. As they oppose science, they fall in that alarmists group.

      - OMG the Y2K bug! We must do something or we are all gonna die!

      This was a marketing scheme (partly). However, if they had not fixed so many systems, it would have caused some trouble. But nothing serious.

      - OMG Ponies!

      Is this pony thing a dangerous event? I must have missed that. ;-)

    6. Re:Already featured by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 1

      Here is some positive news for you: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/ff_apocalypsenot/all/
      Happy reading!
      By the way, ponies ARE dangerous. The risks can be reduced greatly by feeding them with a flattened hand (not getting your keyboard-sausages in that grinder) and when you want to walk behind them take some distance so they wont kick you. I dont want to sound like an alarmist, but... well, y'know :-)

      --
      rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
    7. Re:Already featured by craigminah · · Score: 1

      Please cite references or your post will be terminated...

  3. If they are building it on the moon by jd2112 · · Score: 4, Funny

    And referring to it as the "Alan Parsons" project then I'm all for it.

    --
    Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    1. Re:If they are building it on the moon by deroby · · Score: 1

      Humppfff... Cough...rip-off... cough...

      --
      If there is one thing to be learned on slashdot, it has to be sarcasm.
    2. Re:If they are building it on the moon by blind+biker · · Score: 1

      That project calls for a giant "laser" to be put on the moon.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  4. Which group? by Sez+Zero · · Score: 2, Funny

    Which group is working on the Extreme Shark Project? And the Extreme Laser Forehead Mounting Project?

    Enquiring evil minds want to know...

  5. It might have something to do... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    ...with Elon Musk's statements on Ariane 5. Talk about sabotaging the competition!

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. Common Sense Really by mfh · · Score: 1

    Please don't fire a super powerful world-destroying laser into space. It is quite likely you will eventually hit something we might need someday.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Common Sense Really by o'reor · · Score: 1

      It is quite likely you will eventually hit something we might need someday.

      Or the laser beam could come around and bite us in the ass.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
    2. Re:Common Sense Really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't think we will need our ass in the future. We will have robotic bodies by then

    3. Re:Common Sense Really by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      Being that lasers travel at the speed of light, and we don't, we wouldn't hit anything that we could reach, really soon.

      It might make a good Star Trek episode, though. The Enterprise gets zapped by a laser fired eons ago, by a civilization that no longer exists. When the crew warps on over to take a look, they just find a bunch of peaceful Cylons, or something.

      And then the Captain gets it on with Number 6 . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    4. Re:Common Sense Really by slashmojo · · Score: 1

      As long as it's not a mirror..

    5. Re:Common Sense Really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In more seriousness, it is rather difficult to focus such beams over astronomical distances, ultimately limited by fundamental limits due to diffraction*. Once you get past roughly one or two times the Rayleigh length, the beam will essentially be spreading in a cone and subject to inverse square losses. The Rayleigh length is basically pi*width^2/wavelength, where the width is the minimum width (making a bunch of assumptions about nice Gaussian beam for best case...). A 100 m wide beam, would pretty much be diverging before it hits another planet in our solar system, and would be less than 1% of its power density by the time it reaches Saturn. If the beam were made narrower, it would crap out much sooner (e.g. a 10 m beam would have trouble not far beyond the moon). So as long as we don't hit anything in orbit with it around Earth, it should be fine.

      * High power laser beams in air can self-focus due to making a plasma out of the air that acts like a continuous lens. Maybe a pair producing laser can do the same thing in vacuum. But power from the beam is consumed in making the plasma pretty quickly, so while self-focusing, you still have a lot of power drop off with distance.

    6. Re:Common Sense Really by mfh · · Score: 1

      >And then the Captain gets it on with Number 6 . . .

      I like where your head is at.

      --
      The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    7. Re:Common Sense Really by idontgno · · Score: 1

      In that case, I sincerely hope our metal asses are shiny. So that the laser doesn't bite it.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    8. Re:Common Sense Really by PPH · · Score: 1

      Or just miss someone with a bigger laser and better aim.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  7. Re:there was a time, by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your logic is very bad. The US National Ignition Facility is currently the home of the most powerful laser. So, your demise of the US prediction is vastly overstated. Then you have the fact that it is okay for other governments to do great things to. It is called being part of a community instead of being a hermit. Other countries' accomplishments don't detract from ours,

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  8. That's no moon by ZeroSerenity · · Score: 1

    Said by the scientists after they blow it up with the laser.

    --
    For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
  9. Obligatory... by hey_popey · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

  10. Petraus Replacement. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    ..."Additionally, the lasers could be combined to generate a super laser that would shoot into space, similar to the combined laser effect of the Death Star in the Star Wars trilogy, though the goal is to study particles in space, not annihilate planets."

    Uh, you sure about that last part?

    I guess you didn't get the memo that General D. Vader will be taking Petraus' spot. I hear he was practically a shoo-in for the job, and he's got some blueprints with him...

    There was also the matter of a rather sizable order of shark helmets ordered from someone named D.R. Evil...not sure what that's all about, but the purchase request oddly came out of the same budget...

    1. Re:Petraus Replacement. by YttriumOxide · · Score: 1

      I guess you didn't get the memo that General D. Vader will be taking Petraus' spot.

      While it adds nothing to the topic, I have to use this opportunity to mention that there's an office in my building with a nameplate outside it "D. Maul". Turns out to be an excessively tall scary looking woman with what amounts to a slightly outgrown crew-cut.

      --
      My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
      Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
  11. Hype by rossdee · · Score: 1

    ". Additionally, the lasers could be combined to generate a super laser that would shoot into space, similar to the combined laser effect of the Death Star in the Star Wars trilogy, though the goal is to study particles in space, not annihilate planets.""

    Don't reporters realize that Star Wars is fiction, only loosely based on science.
    To vaporize a planet would take more than the power output of (a star like) the sun.
    And shooting a big laser into space from the surface of the earth would be complicated by the atmosphere (clouds, dust particles, birds...)

  12. Re:there was a time, by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was a time when the US didn't have such a nasty superiority complex. It didn't last that long though..

    --
    which is totally what she said
  13. "The Goal" by caspy7 · · Score: 2

    "...though the goal is to study particles in space, not annihilate planets."
    *wink* *wink*
    Ah yes, I hear you loud & clear scientists. You want to "study" "particles" in "space".
    Just try not to leave the moon in too many pieces while you're studying it...

  14. Re:not like the death star... by HappyHead · · Score: 2

    They could use it to carve their names on the moon.

  15. Re:there was a time, by elashish14 · · Score: 1

    Why should they?

    I'm all for pushing the envelope when there's an incentive involved. The National Ignition Facility was built with the specific purpose of developing a means for safe and sustainable nuclear power - this is a great reason to build a bigger laser. On the other hand, building the Biggest Laser In The World just for the sake of it is a pointless pissing contest and a sad waste of government revenue. Of course, the US already wastes enough on its defense budget; this is a far greater tragedy, but I digress.

    --
    I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
  16. Dumbing down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Do we really need a Star Wars analogy to become interested in this project? Shouldn't the fact that this will be the most powerful laser in the world be reason enough for people to take note?

    This is equivalent some guy telling his buddy "I'm going to buy a new car, it's like a M-50 Tank crossed with a red Italian supercar, except it's really a Ford Escape with the 1.6 liter engine option."

  17. Re:not like the death star... by BenJury · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows lasers are for either destroying planets or confusing cats!

    --
    Blatant Advert: Android Apps!
  18. this is what happened... by gadget+junkie · · Score: 1

    [Imperial commando]:" this is the cover story:"Additionally, the lasers could be combined to generate a super laser that would shoot into space, similar to the combined laser effect of the Death Star in the Star Wars trilogy, though the goal is to study particles in space, not annihilate planets.""

    --
    "If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
  19. Re:not like the death star... by dragon-file · · Score: 1

    Proton pack for catching ghosts? That's cool, and not "killy". And what pre-teen (laymen) doesn't love ghostbusters?

    --
    Whenever a player quits EVE to go play WoW, the Average IQ of both games increase.
  20. Re:there was a time, by dragon-file · · Score: 1

    There was also a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. What's your point?

    --
    Whenever a player quits EVE to go play WoW, the Average IQ of both games increase.
  21. Re:there was a time, by khallow · · Score: 1

    That time was before Slashdot existed. And believe it or not, it was longer than you'd think. At least five years. I kid you not. Then the universe was created.

  22. Re:not like the death star... by Synerg1y · · Score: 1

    Best cat video I've seen in a while, well played.

  23. Yeah, but... by Jawnn · · Score: 2

    ...can it make popcorn?

  24. Yeah but... by ALeader71 · · Score: 1

    when are they gonna mount it on a frigin shark's friggin head?

    --
    Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
  25. Gonna need... by DieByWire · · Score: 1

    Gonna need a bigger shark.

    --
    Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.