• Question: do you think there will be any laser weponary developed into the future?

    Asked by jacklee to Rob, James, Marcus, Martin, Suzanne on 19 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by kaseypearson, daniel1289.
    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Probably not as a replacement for guns – but they’re already used for aiming and could be used to blind people. Not nice.

    • Photo: Robert Thompson

      Robert Thompson answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I agree, I don’t think they’d be used to make “laser guns” They aren’t really that practical in that kind of environment. The one in my lab is also huge and needs a lot of cables for he power supply and then needs a water tank on the roof to cool it down as well.

    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      Hmm not anytime soon I think. To generate that amount of focussed power is pretty difficult. I think they were doing some work with Infrared lasers that could burn things but they needed to be mounted onto a truck.

    • Photo: James Boone

      James Boone answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      I don’t think laser weaponry would be practical, like the others said. However, fairly high power lasers are being put to good use in the medical industry, only recently Surgeons have been able to perform some operations with lasers. Because they burn the flesh rather than cut it, they seal blood capillaries at the same time which prevents bleeding, a process called cauterisation.

    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 21 Mar 2012:

      I agree that lasers as weapons aren’t that likely, unless they’re using them to blind people. They can, however, be used to help guide weapons, making sure they hit their targets accurately (and it’s better to hit your target than a school or hospital nearby by accident).

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