by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
Elon Musk, the madman-genius-engineer behind Palo Alto-based automaker Tesla, made big waves when he declared that “Anyone relying on lidar [for self-driving cars] is doomed. Doomed.” Tesla’s current vehicles use radar, GPS, maps, ultrasonic...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
A Chinese device called the ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle is purported to emit a high-power laser beam that can incinerate you from over a mile away. Ouch! In 2015, the Chinese government dedicated 2 billion yuan to researching and developing compact laser devices of...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
In just sixty years transistors, the switching and memory units that allow computers to compute, have gone from the size of a hand to the size of an atom. In 1968 there were dozens of transistors on a microchip. Within a couple decades there were thousands. Today...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
The enormous loss of ocean life, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 percent, is well documented. Three billion people already depend on fish for protein, and global demand for seafood is predicted to grow at least 40 percent in the next two decades. That’s what’s...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
A beam homogenizer is a device that unifies the profile of a light or laser beam, smooths out its irregularities, and ensures it has uniform power across its profile. Light and lasers can be homogenized in many ways, from beam-folding wedged mirrors and split prisms...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
The costly optical assemblies that allow industrial lasers to weld and slice through metal must be protected from the extreme heat and debris caused by the manufacturing process. Most laser debris shields are made of fused silica, a relatively inexpensive material...
