WEBVTT - The Mega Laser 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.760 Forward Thinking eitheryone. Welcome to a Forward Thinking the podcast 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.000 that looks at the future and says, dynamite with a 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.800 laser beam guar indeed to blow your mind. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.599 I'm Lauren, and I'm Joe McCormick, and I want to 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:28.040 start with a lamentable fact. Amentable fact. It's quite lamentable. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.240 You're about to hear the lamentations of your your friend here. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.479 I am prepared to lament People are less intrigued by 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.160 lasers than they used to be. I think that's that's 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:39.560 a true fact. When it's something that can be put 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.440 on a key chain on your keys, I agree, like 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.400 when it becomes that commonplace. I get the sense that 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:51.239 back in the gold Finger era, lasers were this fresh, scary, 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:56.600 really original and fascinating sci fi trope, and now they're 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:58.760 boring to us. They're what we used to make the 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.120 cat run into the wall. I will say that I 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.080 was not aware that this was a thing, although it 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.120 makes perfect sense. I saw a video on YouTube recently 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.840 in which a group of people went to a laser 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.760 maze where you go into a dark room where there 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.240 are lasers criss crossing all the room, and your job 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:18.920 is to navigate from one part of the room to 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.479 the other side without breaking any of the lasers. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.960 like in that bad Sean Connery movie. Yes, what are 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:31.200 you talk the one that has Jones but going beneath 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:36.200 the necessarily arching Yeah, yeah, that is unnecessary. You know 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.479 my Mike point to one of those. It's great, is it? Yeah, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.600 I gotta try it. My point of comparison, there is actually, 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.640 I believe the Duck Tails movie in which there's a 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:51.320 scene where Scrooge McDuck must infiltrate his own compound and 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.880 it has a moving laser beam area. Yeah, like a 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.000 grid of lasers that you have to maneuver through. So 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.200 they're still I would argue, there's still some life left 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.320 in the old laser still at this point, but yeah, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.040 some of the luster has has worn off. Well, we're 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.040 gonna polish off lasers for you. We are because because 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.440 we're going to talk about the upper end of lasers, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:20.200 the ones that are truly astounding and still kind of terrifying. Yeah, 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.640 and if you don't agree, you're just wrong. Yeah, that's easy. 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:29.920 That's that's that's a factual statement. Okay. But so lasers, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:35.120 where did they come from? Well, this all goes back to, uh, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.760 the early days of radio actually, because you've got to 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.240 think about the time where you have people who first 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.560 discover that there is such a thing as electromagnetic radiation, 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.320 and then they start to figure out how to generate 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.840 electromagnetic radiation and to receive it using radio waves. And 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:56.440 then there was this effort to study this, uh, this 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:58.680 part of physics and to try and figure out, well, 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.919 if we can do this, you know, this range of frequencies, 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.440 this range of wavelengths really of radio waves, what if 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.600 we could aim at trying to harness shorter wavelengths? Yeah, yeah, 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.359 quick basic physics lesson if if you're not familiar radio waves, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.720 visible light, these are all the same stuff. It's just 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.480 different wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. So the way that 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.480 manifests is very different to us. That's the way we 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.680 perceive them or cannot perceive them is dependent upon the 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:35.480 wavelengths and or frequency. Those two are related. Uh So 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.800 radio wavelengths are long, we can measure those in terms 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.640 of like meters. Uh. Then we started to learn how 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.360 to deal with radar, which deals with frequencies that are 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:52.880 measured closer to centimeters to millimeters. And then we started 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.920 having some really smart people ask some really interesting questions 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:01.520 about what else can we do with electro magnetic frequencies 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.720 and wavelengths? Uh. And one of those businicists was named 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:09.000 Charles H. Towns, who passed away in January two um. 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.120 Actually I remember specifically when he passed because a lot 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.920 of people started saying he is the in essence, he's 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.560 the father of the laser. Although the about that well 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.919 also we should we should mention and this this is 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.400 good to say. Whenever we talk about who invented what, 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.080 it's never as simple as one person coming up with 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:32.840 an idea of fully formed It's usually the culmination of years, 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.560 if not decades, of work from dozens or hundreds of 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.160 people that lead up to a point where this invention 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.720 is possible. So we do not wish to suggest that 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.000 Charles H. Towns by himself came up with all this, 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.000 but he pushed it forward. This science doesn't happen in 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.599 a vacuum except sometimes experiments too. Yeah, and occasionally you 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.440 get some crazy Einstein who comes up with a fully 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.960 formed fleshed out theory. Well, I've even seen some debate 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.920 about that, like people talking about to what extent Einstein's 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.920 discoveries were inevitable. Would somebody have discovered the same thing 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.919 around the same time if he hadn't interesting, So the 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.520 point being that that, you know, we we don't wish 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.680 to say that other people don't deserve credit. But Towns 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.200 is often pointed at as sort of the father of lasers. 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:28.560 He was looking at creating precise beams of short wave radiation, um, 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.920 microwave radiation specifically, Yeah, microwave amplification by stimulating the mission 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.520 of radiation is what he called it, or or mazers. Yeah, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.120 and uh and it's an acronym, folks. We've brought this 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.919 up on the podcast before, but you always got to remember, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.279 laser is a word now that you spell in lower 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.200 case letters because we use the words so often in 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:54.440 science fiction that that people got sick of capitalizing it. 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.680 But originally it was an acronym, same same principle as 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.560 maser as an acronym. Yeah, all of masers also now 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.520 just a noun, it's just spelled with lower case letters 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.960 as well. But uh so, so he came up with 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.880 this idea for masers, and he built the first working 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.640 maser in nineteen fifty three. He had some help James P. 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.800 Gordon and H. J. Zeiger worked with him at the 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:20.000 columb at Columbia University, and this was a great jump 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:25.440 forward in science and technology. But maser's had limited practical applications. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.440 What do you do with the focused beam of microwaves? Well, 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.960 you can do lots of different things that that have 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.240 been useful in science and technology, but not to the 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.039 same extent that you would be able to create an 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:43.039 effect using I don't know, even shorter wavelengths. Yeah. Yeah, 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.680 So that leads us to Towns thinking about these shorter wavelengths. Now, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.120 for a while people have been trying to create a 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:54.200 device that could use the far infrared spectrum, but we're 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.360 running into lots of problems. It was really difficult to control, 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.599 to create, to manipulate these infrared wave lengths. And Towns 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.919 hit upon an idea. He said, you know, it looks 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.839 to me that these shorter wave lengths would actually be 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.760 easier than infrared, Like we could skip this part of 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.480 the spectrum. But once you get shorter than infrared, you 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.200 get into the visible spectrum, which is the light we 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.360 see every day. Yeah, yeah, until you keep going and 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.560 get to a point where it's even shorter than what 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.120 we can see, but exactly that it was in the 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:30.239 visible spectrum. So he had essentially theorized that we could 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.440 probably build a device that would use visible light, uh 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.680 and just skip the infrared part for now, at any rate, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:42.880 And he began to work with another physicist named Arthur Shallow. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.120 Shallow was his brother in law, and Shallow ended up 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.120 actually cracking the code for creating a working laser. So 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.520 he created a very long, thin chamber, and he put 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.800 mirrors on either end of the chamber. One of the 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.240 mirrors was not perfectly silvered, meaning that some light could 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.640 escape through this mirror, and then he would start to 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.520 pass a ray of light back and forth into this chamber, 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.360 which also had atoms of some substance depended upon what 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.200 he was experimenting with, and found that because he was 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.800 using these mirrors and the light the rays were passing 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.280 back and forth over and over again, it increased the 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.200 chances of them interacting and thus stimulating these atoms, which 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.200 would emit radiation, and some of that radiation would escape 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:35.280 through the partially silvered mirror on one end, and that 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.920 would create this coherent light, this this focused beam of light, 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:46.559 and thus the laser was born. However, there was another physicist, 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:50.360 another colleague of Towns, who had also spoken with Charles 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.600 Towns about this idea, named Gordon Gould, who was working 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.680 on the problem himself, and he came up with a 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.320 name for a device that would do this, and he 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:03.240 called it Easier and instead microwave, it's light amplification by 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.920 stimulated emission of radiation. So you had Gould working on this, 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.960 and you had a Shallow working on this. Many other 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.199 physicists around the world we're also working on this problem 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.000 and making various contributions that would eventually lead to better 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.160 devices being made down the line. Yeah, yeah, making it practical. Yes. 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.600 So uh, here's where we get into the contention about 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.920 who invented the lasers. So already we've got lots of 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.400 different parties involved. The three big ones that we're talking about, 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.480 of course, are Towns, Shallow, and Gould, but others as well. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.120 You get to a point where Towns and Shallow were working. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.000 Shallow was actually employed by Bell Labs, and Towns was 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.120 working as a consultant for Bell Labs. Meanwhile, Gould was 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.839 working for a company called t rg uh it's sort 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:55.679 of like a a research and development company. And Gould 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.400 maintained that he had filed for a patent for the 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:05.640 laser idea before shallow And and Towns had um but 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.920 Bell Labs had been awarded the patent. So there was 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.360 this big argument about who came up with the actual idea, 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:17.200 and it it waged for decades. I would love to 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:22.040 hear the courtroom proceedings that. I mean, if it actually 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.960 didn't make it to the court or was it legal documentation. Well, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.120 the settlements didn't start coming into so we're talking like 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:34.120 decades of of legal battles and multiple ones, not just 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.040 like a single court case. So it was one of 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.200 those things where it got really ugly. I mean, if 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.320 you ever want to read about patent wars, this would 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.800 be a pretty good one to dive into. At any rate, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.160 we tend to look at the this trio in particular 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.360 as being the physicists who brought lasers into being, although 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.280 keep in mind, like we said, lots of other people 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:59.880 made contributions, some of them very much significant to the successively. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.000 Now the main real laser we're going to talk about 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.560 in this episode is going to be a research laser. 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:10.640 But if you say laser future in the same sentence 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.880 to somebody dr evil, of course you are, because that 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.959 that's the way it has largely been imagined in science fiction. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.480 Any any future projection of the use of lasers probably 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.920 has something to do with weaponry. So I was wondering 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.160 what we should actually talk about this before we get 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.760 into the most amazing laser on Earth today? What is 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.439 up with the sci fi depiction of the laser gun 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.400 or you know, the sort of future laser weapon. Is 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:40.480 there any reality to that? Especially is there any reality 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.040 to the way it's imagined as a kind of handheld device. Well, 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:48.040 it's kind of the most simplistic application of a laser 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:53.040 because it's obvious that these things get warm. So so 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.520 I suppose it's just the easiest thing to to imagine, 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.920 is like, well, a big one gets really really warm, 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.920 and then al Durand goes put um. But you know, 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:06.560 I want to offer my own qualification of the future lasers. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:09.720 I have a problem with the fact that every time 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.880 there is a futuristic movie with laser guns in it, 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.120 standing to the side, you can see the laser blast, 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.640 see it traversing like you see like a distinct, distinct 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.440 dash of light. And really, unless you're looking at it 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.960 head on, it should be invisible to you. Right. The 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.800 future is entirely filled with us fog machines. See. It 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.200 really depends. It depends on it doesn't show up on camera, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.240 but it depends on the wattage of laser. It depends 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.720 upon the frequency it because that will determine the color 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:45.520 and if it's within the visible spectrum whether or not 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:47.520 you can see it. And it depends on how long 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:49.560 the laser is turned on. Like if you were to 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.600 turn it on on, like the laser on a laser pointer, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.520 and it was a dark enough environment with some particulate 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:00.000 matter in the area, it's certainly you could see a beam. Uh. 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.440 If it's not, however, you probably wouldn't. Alternately, I would 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.520 say that everyone in the future is wearing augmented reality 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.880 contacts and that do kind of the same thing that 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.240 that television networks do when they're broadcasting football or hockey 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.840 or something like that over a line to show you 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.640 where things are happening. Laser battle with the drawings on 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.520 your eyes. Yeah, at least at least uh, you know, 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.760 the laser blaster type stuff in Star Wars as supposed 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.360 to be uh a blaster in the sense that it's 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.920 actually projecting something besides pure light, because although obviously otherwise 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.800 you would never see the blast move from the gun 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.160 to the target. It would be far too fast. But 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.199 think about how creepy it would be if you made 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.600 that sci fi movie a weapon with the invisible kill. 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:53.840 Like you pointed, you see nothing, it's actually much scarier. Yeah, 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.960 it doesn't quite happen that quickly. Yeah, it's yeah, right, 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.679 it's it's it would not be an immediate blast effect 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.040 the way that we see in movies, or at least 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.840 not anything like that from the technology that we have today. 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:12.000 Where is the technology to some of it's in the military. Okay, 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.120 so when you come down to the handheld laser gun, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.360 that's pretty much that's pretty much a non starter right now. 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.080 And I'll get into y in a second. But there 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:25.320 are multiple reasons why it's not very practical. Um. The 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.480 big one is that, well, we've got some lasers that 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:33.400 are used for military purposes, like actual semi weaponized type lasers. 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.960 In two thousand and thirteen, the United States Navy announced 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.040 it would equip the USS punts with a laser weapons 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:44.480 system also known as laws L little a WS, and 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.520 the system had been tested on drones have been proven 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.320 to reduce a drone to no longer a drone or 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.160 garbage or whatever. It just made it no longer work. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.560 And uh, it's interesting. So so who found the six 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:04.320 commercial cutting lasers? That's yes, that's really cool. I didn't 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.280 see that. It basically just yeah, stacks six commercial cutting 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.680 lasers um and in the process finds up using really 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.480 quite a lot of energy. Yes, yes, in fact, that 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.440 is one of the big issues. Now, on one hand, 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.400 they're way cheaper on a purse shot basis than using 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.200 alternate methods like missiles. Yeah, because the Navy said, hey, 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.240 it costs US about a buck to shoot this laser 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.240 off once. It costs US hundreds of thousands of dollars 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.160 to launch a single missile that we would launch at 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.600 a drone typically. Sure, because it's filled with a computer 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.320 bits and all kinds of other stuff and expensive metals, 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.720 and light is relatively inexpensive to create. Yeah, it's not 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.520 that not that bad, but it does take a lot 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.440 of energy and there are other things you've got to consider, right, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.120 if you're going to be using lies the weapon, there 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.360 are other things that can end up being a problem. 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.240 Oh sure, the like the density of the atmosphere, because 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.560 as we have said many times on the show, air 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.080 is not thin. It's a soup. And so even the 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.040 world's most powerful laser, which we will I promise get 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.600 talking to in a few minutes here um, couldn't shoot 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.680 down anything so far away as a satellite, certainly due 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.200 to atmospheric interference. The very best that I've heard of 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.280 a laser doing in terms of distance through the atmosphere 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.400 is a German company called m b d A Deutschland, 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:27.800 claiming that it can knock out a drone from three 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.960 kilometers away, which is a little bit less than two miles. Now, 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.000 like I said, you've got to use a lot of power. 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:35.760 Lauren mentioned this to you gotta use a lot of 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.360 power for this laser to work. So lasers are not 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.760 always terribly efficient, and in fact usually only a fraction 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.560 of the amount of electricity you pour into a laser 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.880 gets represented in the power output of the laser itself. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.520 So I imagine there's a lot lost just to heat. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.440 Oh yeah, that's that's one of the biggest problems. And 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.160 also just focusing the laser, like using the energy so 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.920 that the laser is truly focused. That that requires a 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.480 lot of energy as well. So you might hear about 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.639 something like a twenty kill a watt laser, which is 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.400 incredibly powerful. It pales in comparison to the one we're 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.760 gonna talk about in a minute, but way stronger than 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:13.920 anything you or I could get. Yeah, that's that's like 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.760 a high end military laser, right, Yeah, so twenty what 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.280 laser actually needs way more than a wats of electricity 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.800 for it to run. So wats is referring to the laser, 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:26.760 not the laser output. Yeah, I'll talk a little bit 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:28.840 more about wattage with lasers and a little bit to 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:33.160 explain exactly what power output means. But yes, some systems 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.600 are working on making that power output more efficient, um 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.280 by creatively amplifying and combining multiple laser beams. For example, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.919 Lockheed Martin is working on this spectral beam combining system 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:50.080 for the Army that merges hundreds of little optical fiber 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:55.240 lasers into one coherent beam, which allows pretty sharp focus 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.919 at longer distances. One of the project's leaders describes it 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.000 as sort of like the the reverse of how a 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.600 prism splits a beam of light. It instead the system 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.960 is combining um so that that does let you cut 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.960 down on the energy wasted in in in heat sink 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.159 by letting you cool each individual fiber rather than trying 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.800 to cool one giant system. Yeah, I do look forward 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:25.120 to the hit song by Kermit the Frog the laser connection. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.159 They will be based on this principle. Uh So, laser 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.320 systems also have to use like like the ones the 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.359 one on the USS ponds has to use multiple laser 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.720 beams just to be able to to track and fire correctly. 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.600 Because an energy weapon is going to be substantially different 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:45.760 than shooting a missile. I mean, the advantage of a 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.360 missile might be that if it has if it's very advanced, 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.520 it might have its own target seeking capabilities some kind 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:53.760 like once you've launched it, it can still seek after 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:57.360 the target. With a laser, you need to aim right 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.240 the first time, but you're projectile moves at the speed 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.080 of light so well, and you're probably aiming at a 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:09.639 moving target, which means and like we said, a laser 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.800 hitting a target is it's not instantaneous destruction. You may 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.520 have to have that laser concentrated on the target for 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.040 a matter of a couple of seconds to follow it. Yeah, 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.639 and and it sounds like it requires some good guidance 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.480 and tracking. And that's exactly right. So one issue Lauren 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.600 already mentioned the fact about the atmosphere being a just 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.240 having a distorting effect. Uh. The version that is on 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.440 the U S S PONTS has three beams. The first 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.760 beam is just meant to measure that atmospheric distortion so 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.360 that a computer system can then account for that. For 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.480 the actual fire beam, the one that's going to dismantle 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.280 or disable the target, Uh, there's a second laser that 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.400 is used specifically for targeting purposes. And then the third 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:55.280 laser is the one that actually does the pew pew 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.240 part that makes the drone no longer a drone. And 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.840 uh uh these systems are big, Like the one the 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:07.040 US SPOTS is quite large and far larger than what 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.320 any human being could ever carry. Even if you had, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:15.320 you know, like a right, Yeah, you would need essentially 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.400 a tank behind you that was carrying the whole thing. 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.560 And even then, I don't think you would be holding 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.480 any kind of a mirror, It wouldn't make any sense. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.879 You would make more sense for you to have this 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.440 be a automated system that could track and move with 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.320 precise moments, because the further way you are from your target, 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.800 then the smaller degree will matter, like or the more 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.800 a degree will matter, Like if I change my orientation 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.879 by a single degree if you're really far away, that 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.160 could mean the difference between whether I hit you or 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.840 I missed by a long shot. Right. Let's say I 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:54.000 suddenly had lots of money and I wanted to melt 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:58.639 my neighbor's mailbox because that would be funny. Could I 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:03.360 buy a kill at laser? No, but you could buy 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.320 You could buy a pretty decent powerful laser that is 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:09.879 far greater than what you would find in a like 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.560 a keychain laser pointer. Yeah, yeah, something you know in 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.440 between melting a mailbox and I'm using your cat maybe 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:22.080 maybe like putting a pretty good singe mark on your wall. Yeah, 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:24.960 you can. You can get something like a two thousand 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:29.200 milliwatt laser, which is more than enough to be able 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.600 to do things like pop balloons or light matches or 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.160 even light other material if you focus on it long enough. Uh, 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:39.280 These are legal, they're available, you can actually purchase one 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.600 of them. I don't recommend playing with one because they 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:44.760 are dangerous. You would need to wear eye protection and 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:47.840 be aware that the beam you are playing with can 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:51.760 in fact cause real damage both to living and non 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:54.760 living things. Um, if you want to melt your your 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:59.760 neighbor's mailbox, I suggest don't do it. But if you're 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:04.120 everman to do it, charcoal would probably suffice. You really 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.840 need to go out and get a laser. Um, but 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.399 don't do it is the main message. Uh. Yeah, So 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:13.879 there are some commercial lasers out there that we we 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:17.000 regular consumers can get our hands on that are definitely 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:19.960 you know, they're definitely to a level powerful enough that 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:24.120 they are dangerous you don't handle them properly. But there 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.480 are really a lot of applications for lasers that aren't 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:33.000 just setting stuff on fire. Ruff well, I mean they're yeah, 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:38.760 like like like secret agents, no, Mr bond Um. There 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.280 are lasers that are used for industrial purposes, whether to 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.159 drill holes or to cut or to weld lots of 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:49.120 different UM means practical means to put lasers to work 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.120 in that sense, but they're also lasers that are meant 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:55.399 to do things that don't involve cutting or burning or 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.280 drilling and are really it's just the the use of 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:03.359 light as a a useful tool, for example, to figure 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:06.960 out the distance between two very far apart objects. Yeah, 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.280 how about surveyors lasers. Yeah, that's a great example. We 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:12.800 use those here where typically what you're doing is you 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:16.479 take a a tripod that has a laser mounted to it, 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:20.080 You aim it at a reflective surface that is, uh, 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:22.240 you know, off in the distance, and when you fire 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.199 the laser, you have sensors that detect when some of 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.080 that laser light returns when it's been reflected off of 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.359 that reflective surface, and by taking the time it took 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:33.760 for the laser to go out and bounce back, you 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:36.480 know how far away you are from that distant object. 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:41.880 What about something way more distant like the moon, Yeah, 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:44.719 you could do that too. So yeah, when Apollo eleven 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:48.399 form of surveying, yeah, surveying how far away the moon is? 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:51.960