It also replaces Powerpoint.
Proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDWRZ7IYqw
Lasers heat things up, right? – unless you happen to hit upon the right resonance, in which case it seems you can use lasers to cool things down. laser_cooled_semiconductor Koji Usami carries out the experiments at the Quantop laboratories at the Niels Bohr Institute. Credit: Niels Bohr Institute In an announcement that …
From the article:
"This is a new optomechanical mechanism, which is central to the new discovery. The paradox is that even though the membrane as a whole is getting a little bit warmer, the membrane is cooled at a certain oscillation and the cooling can be controlled with laser light. So it is cooling by warming! We managed to cool the membrane fluctuations to minus 269 degrees C", Koji Usami explains."
NOTE: the membrane as a whole is GETTING WARMER. Only certain oscillation modes of the membrane are being cooled - that is, only certain vibrations are being reduced as if the membrane was cold, but overall, the membrane is warming up. This won't cool your CPU, your drink, or your house.
For fun science beer cooling, look up the guy in New Zealand who make a jet engine beer cooler! OK, the link between het engine and beer cooling is a bit tenuous, but it's a good read, and seeing as also comes to you from the site that gave you Star Wars in Ascii, you have to give him 10/10!!
Go here and click the link "Jet Powered Beer Cooler", and enjoy!
I always thought that laser cooling of atoms worked by the photon from the laser being absorbed by the atom, changing it's energy level, and then the atom releasing a photon and falling back to a lower energy level. If you choose the wavelength of the laser, you can make it so that the photon emitted by the atom has a higher energy than the one absorbed, making a net loss of energy in the atom, and hence colder.
Anyone? Oh and if what I have written doesn't make sense, then I am sorry; there is a reason that I don't write articles!
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As other have pointed out the usual route to getting 4K is either a big thermos of liquid Helium or some *very* carefully engineered cryo coolers with fairly small heat capacities.
The former eventually boil dry and the latter have pretty small capacities (IIRC 10W is *huge* in this game) so this *might* be a breakthrough for those missions.
Cautious thumbs up.