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Physicists Have Created the Brightest Light Ever Recorded (vice.com)

Jason Koebler writes: A group of physicists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Extreme Light Laboratory announced Monday that they have created the brightest light ever produced on Earth using Diocles, one of the most powerful lasers in the United States. When this high intensity laser pulse, which is one billion times brighter than the surface of the sun, strikes the electron, it causes it to behave differently. By firing this laser at individual electrons, the researchers found that past a certain threshold, the brightness of light will actually change an object's appearance rather than simply making it brighter. The x-rays that are produced in this fashion have an extremely high amount of energy, and Umstadter and his colleagues think this could end up being applied in a number of ways. For starters, it could allow doctors to produce x-ray medical images on the nanoscale, which would allow them to detect tumors and other anomalies that regular x-rays might have missed. Moreover, it could also be used for more sophisticated x-ray scanning at airports and other security checkpoints.

3 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. A likely story by Trogre · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pretty sure the blue LED on the front of my stereo is brighter.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    1. Re:A likely story by pr0t0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      The screen on my cell phone...at 06:00 am is easily the brightest object in the universe.

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      I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
  2. First use by joncombe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will be for BMW headlights. They seem to like to fit blindingly bright headlights. Yes it's great if it helps the BMW driver see but not so good if the drivers coming the other way can't see anything.