Sound Beams!

A few years ago we mentioned the nifty technology of "Sonic Blasters." While the name is awesomely cool, the actual device is essentially nothing but a really loud speaker. Not the stuff of true science fiction. Well, science has finally caught up with fiction. Researchers in Nottingham and Ukraine have developed the world's first working "SASER." The "SASER" uses the same principle as a laser, applied to sound -- it emits a super high-frequency sound beam. It has tremendous potential applications in nanotechnology and imaging, among others.

One application the linked article is rather coy about is how, um, destructive a terahertz sound beam might be. The higher the frequency, the higher the energy. A terahertz is a frequency of 1 trillion oscillations per second; by contrast, human hearing maxes out at 20 thousand hertz, so SASER emissions ought to be on the order of 10 million times more energetic than the noises we can hear. (Experts on acoustics are encouraged to tell me what I'm getting wrong.)

So while it seems unlikely that SASERS will be able to vaporize people or shoot down spaceships, it does sound like they could do some damage in the hands of a suitably mad scientist. Or really mess up some pirates.

Comments

[Brian Rogers]

The most dangerous (and vaporizing) weapons in early edition Gamma World are also sonics based. I fear that we're heading towards the Floop Future.

[Thom H.]

While I think that all this new technology is kewl, I wonder if it wouldn't be easier and cheaper to use tried and true LAT against the pirates.

Where LAT = Lead Acceleration Technology
ie. bits of heavy metal propelled by sudden exothermic chemical reactions.

[Wholesale]

Sound, so long lilting to the ears in music is now about to vaporize us? Incredible