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South African Research Team Creates World's First Digital Laser

Posted by samzenpus on from the better-focus dept.

smi.james.th writes in with news about new laser technology developed in South Africa. "The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced in Pretoria on Tuesday that it had developed the world's first digital laser. 'I am always very cautious about using the term "breakthrough",' noted Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom. 'We scrutinized this very carefully before we said that this is really new! South African scientists are once again making noteworthy contributions to the world.'... A normal laser contains two mirrors, opposed to each other and at opposite ends of the instrument. One is highly reflective and the other is a curved, partially reflective mirror. In the digital laser, the curved mirror is replaced by a liquid crystal display (LCD) system. The LCD is connected to a computer and monitor."

2 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Important part the summary neglected by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I fail to see how that's digital

    An English major wrote it. It uses a computer-controlled LCD instead of a curved mirror. There are benefits, TFA isn't very good at explaining them because the guy who wrote the article either didn't understand the concepts or really sucks at communicating them. You really have to look hard through the overabundance of redundant marketspeak verbiage to grok it.

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  2. Re:Important part the summary neglected by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I fail to see how that's digital

    An English major wrote it. It uses a computer-controlled LCD instead of a curved mirror. There are benefits, TFA isn't very good at explaining them because the guy who wrote the article either didn't understand the concepts or really sucks at communicating them. You really have to look hard through the overabundance of redundant marketspeak verbiage to grok it.

    I doubt an English major wrote it -- it looks an awful lot like a Communications major wrote it; an English major wouldn't use an overabundance of redundant marketspeak, but would instead make all sorts of obscure references in fairly terse but accurate English.