Lasers are one of the sexier corners of science thanks to Hollywood: Think Star Wars lightsabers, James Bond death rays, and blasters going âpew! pew!â But back in reality, theyâre enabling the modern world, guiding [self-driving cars]( reading [barcodes]( directing [intercontinental missiles]( and creating perfectly distressed [denim jeans](.
This yearâs Nobel Prize in physics recognized two significant pieces of work on lasersâone of great delicacy and one of intense power. Arthur Ashkin, a former employee of Bell Labs, got the prize for developing âoptical tweezers and their application to biological systems.â And Gérard Mourou of Ãcole Polytechnique in France and Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo in Canada were recognized for âgenerating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.â
Ashkinâs work has allowed scientists to grab onto living cells, while Mourou and Stricklandâs research has amped up small lasers so that they can replicate the conditions of the Big Bang. Letâs shine a light on these remarkable achievements.
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Lasers
October 04, 2018
On an ultralight beam
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Lasers are one of the sexier corners of science thanks to Hollywood: Think Star Wars lightsabers, James Bond death rays, and blasters going âpew! pew!â But back in reality, theyâre enabling the modern world, guiding [self-driving cars]( reading [barcodes]( directing [intercontinental missiles]( and creating perfectly distressed [denim jeans](.
This yearâs Nobel Prize in physics recognized two significant pieces of work on lasersâone of great delicacy and one of intense power. Arthur Ashkin, a former employee of Bell Labs, got the prize for developing âoptical tweezers and their application to biological systems.â And Gérard Mourou of Ãcole Polytechnique in France and Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo in Canada were recognized for âgenerating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.â
Ashkinâs work has allowed scientists to grab onto living cells, while Mourou and Stricklandâs research has amped up small lasers so that they can replicate the conditions of the Big Bang. Letâs shine a light on these remarkable achievements.
ð¦ [Tweet this!](
ð [View this email on the web](
Reuters/Paulo Whitaker
By the digits
[192:]( Beams inside the worldâs biggest laser facility, Californiaâs National Ignition Facility
[100 petawatts:]( Strength of the laser a Chinese research team is aiming to construct by 2023
[4:]( prizes in physics previously awarded for fundamental work in lasers (in 1964, 1981, 1997, and 2005)
[1:20:]( of women to men among Nobel Prize winners since the academy was founded in 1901
[5]( Month span between Wikipediaâs rejection of a biographical entry on Donna Strickland and her becoming the only living female Nobel physics laureate
[17%:]( Proportion of the current biographical entries on Wikipedia that are about women
[2.24 Ã 10^32 Joules:]( it would take the Death Star to blow up Alderaan with its laserâequivalent to the energy produced by the Sun for a week
The basics
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Lasers: [how do they work?]( ð¤
The short version is that they release monochromatic light (of a single wavelength) in a concentrated, organized beam. A laser consists of a [âgain mediumâ]( that amplifies lightâand something to provide optical feedback, often a pair of mirrors, which serve to amplify the light as it bounces back and forth.
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Fun fact!
Despite the catchy acronym (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), a laser that produces light by itself is technically an oscillator, not amplifier. So it has been â[humorously noted]( that the acronym LOSER, for âlight oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation,ââ is a better technical description.
Explain it like I'm 5!
The tractor beam, IRL
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Arthur Ashkin began playing with lasers soon after they were invented in the 1960s. Put simply, lasers are focused beams of light particles called photons. Ashkin understood that, if he were to put enough of these photons together, it would be possible to create âradiativeâ pressure on objects.
More importantly, Ashkin understood that a laser has more photons in the middle of a beam than at the edges. The difference created a natural gradient, which could be exploited to hold objects in place. That became what we know today as âoptical tweezers.â
[colorcorrected (20)]The red laser is applying a force on the white particle, which pushes it out in a highly defined trajectory.(Nobel Prize Foundation)
Ashkin went on to use optical tweezers to hold bacteria. Then, with even more precise lasers, he began to study the insides of microbes without destroying them. Others followed up on his work by using lasers to tweak the molecular machines inside living cells. In other words, Ashkin had created a real-life version of science fictionâs [tractor beam](.
pop quiz
When was the âtractor beamâ concept first mentioned?
In Phishâs "Hoist"In a 1931 sci-fi novel In a Jules Verne essayIn the Star Trek writers room
Correct. Author E. E. Smith described it in his book "Spacehounds of IPC."
Incorrect. In the Star Trek writers room
If your inbox doesnât support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email.
Very recent history
The Nobel casts a big shadow on the scientific community, so letâs shine some light on fascinating laser research that hasnât yet been recognized by Stockholm.
[2015:]( Scientists turn fat cells into lasers.
[2015:]( Scientists use a laser to cool water with a quirk of physics.
[2015:]( Scottish researchers use lasers to see around corners.
[2015:]( Apple patents a transparent laser TV, but the picture isnât good enough, and it uses an âenormousâ amount of power.
[2016:]( Scientists shoot a laser at anti-matter to figure out why the universe exists.
Reuters/Peter Power
Big question
Strickland is the first woman in 55 years and the only the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in physics. Since the prize was founded in 1901, women have won 49 out of 923 prizes. [Why so few](
keep explaining!
Short but sweet
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Donna Strickland, then at the University of Rochester, was once a PhD in Gérard Mourouâs lab. Together, their goal was to create very powerful but short-lived lasers. Until the 1980s, such attempts inevitably broke the instruments used for amplification because of the amount of power needed.
Strickland and Mourou found that stretching a laser out reduced its peak power, which could then be greatly amplified using normal instruments. It could then be compressed to create the short-lived, highly powerful lasers they were after. The technique, which was described in Stricklandâs first scientific publication, came to be known as chirped pulse amplification (CPA).
The tools Strickland and Mourou created have made it possible to study natural phenomena in unprecedented ways. CPA can be used to create a laser pulse that only lasts one attosecondâone-billionth of a billionth of a second. At those timescales, it became possible to not just study chemical reactions, but also study what happens inside individual atoms.
[colorcorrected (21)]
The lasers can also be used to make highly precise cuts into materials like semiconductor chips; to store data in solid-state hard drives; and to manufacture custom-made medical stents to widen and reinforce blood vessels.
Watch this!
Leviâs goes to great lengths to give their jeans an aged, vintage look. Their newest method creates âbroken-inâ jeans in about 90 seconds. Using lasers.
Giphy
Million-dollar question
Why are small lasers such a big deal?
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Mourou and Stricklandâs research has been critical to building ever more powerful lasers, which nonetheless are small enough to fit on an ordinary table and cost mere millions of dollars. (Remember, power = energy / time, so a trivial amount of energy, like that emitted by a lightbulb, can be used to create incomprehensible amounts of power in an incomprehensibly short timeframe.)
The Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF) generated 5.3 petawatts with a Frisbee-sized piece of sapphire, and theyâre aiming for 10 petawatts by the end of the year. Here are explorations of how petawatt lasers could [recreate the Big Bang]( [how 100 petawatt lasers could be next]( and whether they would be sufficient to [ârip apart empty space.â](
If youâre interested in something a bit more down-to-earth, learn why an LED-lighting pioneer thinks that [lasers are the future of residential lighting]( (theyâre already used in the headlights of the BMW i8), or how Facebook might [deliver the internet]( by laser.
This one weird trick!
Of mice and memories
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In 2014, MIT scientists [used lasers to manipulate the memories of mice](. First, they shocked male mice and labeled the neurons that encoded the memory of the shock. Then they used lasers to trigger those neurons when the mice crossed into a certain part of the cage, causing the mice to avoid it. Then they put the mice in a part of the cage with female mice and triggered the neurons againâwhich encoded the experience as pleasurable. When they were isolated and triggered a final time, they went to the areas they now associated with female mice.
Giphy
poll
How cool are lasers?
[Click here to vote](
So coolActually kinda scary?Scary cool
ð¬let's talk!
In yesterdayâs poll about [robo-farmers]( 71% of you said âkeep your hands off my veggies!â ð§ Jake wrote: âLast year I was in Rome to celebrate a birthday. When I returned home (to Vancouver, Canada) everyone asked how my trip was. You know what the first thing I said was? âI HAD THE MOST INCREDIBLE TOMATO!â a confused look would wash over their face. It was my first Italian tomato and I couldnât get over how rich and beautiful the flavour was. No North American tomato compared.â
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