World's Strongest Laser Unveiled
The world's most powerful laser was unveiled Friday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, California).
The world's most powerful laser, known officially as the National Ignition Facility, was unveiled Friday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, California).
The super laser was created to help keep tabs on the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile while also studying the heavens. It is the size of a football field and consists of 192 separate laser beams, each traveling 1,000 feet in one-thousandth of a second to converge simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser.
Federal officials plan to use the laser on an assignment that would include ensuring aging nuclear weapons are functioning properly without resorting to underground testing. Other uses will include the study of astrophysics and experiments in developing green energy programs.
Beginning in 2010, scientists also will use the laser for experiments aimed at creating controlled fusion reactions similar to those found in the sun.
Improving Fluorescence and Raman Techniques for Environmental Microplastic Analysis
March 31st 2025A recent study conducted at the LaserLaB Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands) explored spectroscopic imaging techniques, including Raman and fluorescence microscopy, for characterizing microplastics (MPs), focusing on optimizing sample preparation, particularly density separation, and Nile Red staining.Spectroscopy spoke to Merel Konings, corresponding author of the paper resulting from the study, about her work
New Study Provides Insights into Chiral Smectic Phases
March 31st 2025Researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences have unveiled new insights into the molecular arrangement of the 7HH6 compound’s smectic phases using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy.
