You can run, but you sure as hell can't hide -- at least not from British troops in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence has just confirmed it's bought a job-lot of counter-sniper detection systems that use lasers to find enemy snipers. AWESOME. Read More >>

While conventional video projectors have remained largely a niche market for dedicated home theatre enthusiasts on account of their difficult installation. However, a new breed of "home projector" has developed over the past few years into an increasingly viable alternative to flat panel televisions. And if LG's new 100-inch class LG "HECTO" Laser TV is any indicator, the LED/Plasma debate may be moot. Read More >>

We've all seen our fair share of crooked gingerbread houses, daubed with frosting to the point where they look less like a building and more like a bomb site. Johan von Konow has a solution to that problem, though: design the building using CAD and manufacture it using laser cutters. Read More >>

Since pretty much the dawn of history, people have been trying to use beams of energy to burn, melt and blow stuff up. In every film based in the future, lasers tend to play a big  part in how the characters go about mutilating each other; so why don't we seem to be getting any closer to this idyllic lightsaber-filled future? Read More >>

A team of scientists has smashed the record for the shortest-ever laser pulse, producing one that lasts just 67 billionths of a billionth of a second—which is short enough to use it to image individual electrons orbiting the nuclei of atoms. Read More >>

Researchers at the National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London have found a simple way to make masers. According to team leader Dr. Mark Oxborrow, this "new type of electronic device" could revolutionise the world in the same way lasers did—and even beyond that. Read More >>

While Curiosity was still flying through space, way before it landed on Mars, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were busy working with a clone rover back on earth. In a simulation area called the Mars Yard, scientists put the duplicate Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) through a series of experiments to perfect the rover's software and reevaluate its capabilities. The tests answered critical questions, such as: Can it go over that big rock? Read More >>

Hidden away at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility is a terrifying 10-story laser. Recently scientists have finally started using it in anger, and now they've even smashed previous records to fire the most powerful laser shot ever recorded. Read More >>

Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 50 metres away as soon as you step in the country. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes, to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body — agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you. Read More >>

This is Leyna Gonzalez. When her mother was just 17 weeks pregnant, this ultrasound scan revealed that she had a tumour the size of a peach growing from her mouth. The only way to save her was to remove it while she was still in the womb—a procedure that had never been performed before. Read More >>

Lasers are cool, but X-ray lasers are so much cooler. Until now, the only X-ray lasers to ever exist have required so much power that their infrastructure took up the same amount of space as football stadiums — but a team of scientists have just made one that fits in your living room. Read More >>

Today, you might read that scientists have developed a way to produce faster-than-light travel. But steady, there: we've been burnt once recently, so let's not let it happen again. Did scientists really manage to break the speed of light? Read More >>

What the hell? Wicked Lasers has actually made a lightsaber. I mean, not one that can cut you in half, but one that looks and acts like the actual Jedi weapon! At least, that's what they claim: Read More >>

Yo' coherent light source is so fat, it takes 37 seconds to trace the electron's beam path — in fast forward. Read More >>

Parametric speakers aren't exactly new, but this Kickstarter idea is tiny and practical. The Soundlazer delivers a focused beam of audio in a single direction. Theoretically, you could point it at yourself, and nobody around you would hear your embarrassing music at all. Read More >>