![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sharks with frickin' laser beams
2011-Jun-13, Monday 12:09 amDr. Evil is a memorable fictional character from the "Austin Powers" movies. He is the antagonist whose evil plans must be thwarted by the heroic Austin Powers. To help him with his evil plans, Dr. Evil desires a monstrous weapon:
Eventually, Dr. Evil gets his wish.
I'll up the ante. What about sharks with lasers built into their heads?
Sure, these biolasers aren't the powerful kind that could actually destroy anything, but who needs that much reality in their movie parodies?
Sharks don't need lasers to be menacing. I think that excessive overkill is what makes the meme ("Sharks with frickin' laser beams!") successful even this many years after the movie. The absurd exaggeration is amusing.
If I saw something this big (pictured on right) coming at me in the water... I'm sure I'd be appropriately terrified even without worrying about lasers.
"You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!"
Eventually, Dr. Evil gets his wish.
I'll up the ante. What about sharks with lasers built into their heads?
Physicists create a living laser
Gather says that, to the best of his knowledge, this is the first time that a laser has been made from a living material. He mentions that scientists have previously mixed dead tissue with inorganic laser materials and seen coherent emission from the composite. But this latest material is made entirely from living tissue, and this remains alive even after emitting hundreds of laser pulses.
...
The next step, says Gather, is to shrink the mirror cavity so that it is small enough to fit inside a cell, the typical diameter of which is between 10 and 20 μm. This may then allow imaging of cell-lasers inside a living animal, rather than having to extract cells for investigation in the lab. In this case the pumping laser could be supplied either from the outside by shining it through the body or by injecting light through optical fibres inserted into the body.
- http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46248
Gather says that, to the best of his knowledge, this is the first time that a laser has been made from a living material. He mentions that scientists have previously mixed dead tissue with inorganic laser materials and seen coherent emission from the composite. But this latest material is made entirely from living tissue, and this remains alive even after emitting hundreds of laser pulses.
...
The next step, says Gather, is to shrink the mirror cavity so that it is small enough to fit inside a cell, the typical diameter of which is between 10 and 20 μm. This may then allow imaging of cell-lasers inside a living animal, rather than having to extract cells for investigation in the lab. In this case the pumping laser could be supplied either from the outside by shining it through the body or by injecting light through optical fibres inserted into the body.
- http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46248
Sure, these biolasers aren't the powerful kind that could actually destroy anything, but who needs that much reality in their movie parodies?Sharks don't need lasers to be menacing. I think that excessive overkill is what makes the meme ("Sharks with frickin' laser beams!") successful even this many years after the movie. The absurd exaggeration is amusing.
If I saw something this big (pictured on right) coming at me in the water... I'm sure I'd be appropriately terrified even without worrying about lasers.