£30 million funding for UK laser weapons

You know the huge Death star laser in Star Wars? The UK government just shelled out £30 million to buy one. OK, I’m exaggerating. The camera may add ten pounds, but It’s not going to be as big as Darth Vader’s. It may mean, however, death by laser will become the norm sooner than Hollywood suggests. 2019.

Peter Cooper, from the UK’s Defence science and technology Laboratory (DSTL) says the funding is designed to “understand how directed high power lasers could benefit the armed forces….and…provide a more effective response to the emerging threats that could be faced by the UK.” Who else is having Doctor Evil flashbacks?

This isn’t a new idea though. America has been experimenting with high energy lasers for decades with reasonable success. Defence minister, Harriet Baldwin, thinks we shouldn’t get left behind on the military train, saying that “truly ground breaking projects like [this]” would “keep this country ahead of the curve”. Whilst your formulating your own opinion on weapons of mass destruction, lets talk A level Physics.

A laser is an intense source of monochromatic light. Breaking that down: It’s a source of light. It can be extremely intense (so intense it can become deadly). It's monochromatic, which means it is formed from only one wavelength or frequency. And we can easily work out what that wavelength is using a piece of equipment called a diffraction grating.

All these waves are in phase which means if you layered them on top of each other they would look the same. Finally, all the waves travel in a straight line rather than spreading out. This simple concept of lots of totally in sync waves, travelling in a tight beam for a very long distance makes for a stream of light with a huge amount of energy. How huge? Up to 1 million times more energy than a standard light bulb huge. BOOM. We have a potential weapon. One thing we can learn from this and apply to A level physics? LASERS CAN BE DANGEROUS! SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS. OK the ones in your lab might not be death star dangerous, or even US Army dangerous. But, they can potentially damage your eyes or even blind you, so please wear protection.

Oh, and I’ll let you know when we are due light sabers.