After one of his college roommates succumbed to the disease during a trip to Africa, Szabolcs Márka became concerned about the impact of malaria on the peoples of that continent. Now a physicist at Columbia University, Márka has been using his expertise to develop a means of combating that plight. He’s using lasers to restrict the movements of disease-carrying mosquitoes:

“People concentrate more on studying mosquitoes’ olfactory or chemical sensors, but light or heat seemed like an interesting area,” he says. “Overloading, damaging or confusing this sensory system can prevent mosquitoes from reaching their prey.”

On a recent day in his lab in Pupin Hall, Márka placed mosquitoes in a test chamber through which he and his team shot an infrared light ray. The mosquitoes, unaware of the barrier, flew toward it but stopped and turned back upon reaching it.

Márka hopes that his research will someday lead to the development of an effective laser-based mosquito barrier that can be used in regions of the world heavily afflicted by malaria.

Link (warning: self-starting video) -via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: Columbia University

Why does this sound like the beginning of a sci-fi horror movie? Let’s hope the scientists learn something really cool like the existence of parallel universes by tearing apart the vacuum of space-time.

Recently the European Commission approved the construction of three high powered research laser. The primary purpose of these lasers is to search for theoretical particles. They are hoping to build a fourth laser that could potentially “tear apart the vacuum of space-time” to reveal the matter and anti-matter within.

Link

You can pop popcorn by firing a laser at a single kernel. That’s what YouTube user WorldScott did using two laser emitters that look like lightsabers. A spinning turntable ensured even cooking throughout the kernel.

via CrunchGear

Who’s been stealing my Twinkies from my cubicle here at Neatorama HQ? This time, I’m going to catch Miss Cellania in the act! Instructables user action_owl designed and built a homemade laser tripwire alarm system that tweets a picture of anyone who crosses it:

This instructable will show you how to construct a laser tripwire that can twitter and grab an image from a webcam, as well as execute any command you can put in a bash script.

This instructable is actually quite simple and is even suitable as a beginner arduino project. It requires a GNU/linux (or possibly Mac) operating system with the arduino IDE and Processing IDE working properly.

Video at the link.

Link via OhGizmo! | Photo: action_owl

The people at Wicked Lasers removed the laser from a Casio projector and put it into something that looks like a lightsaber prop. The Spyder III is not a toy, but is actually quite dangerous:

It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quickly to skin and other body parts, use with extreme caution and only when using the included eye protection. Customers will be required to completely read and agree to our Class IV Laser Hazard Acknowledgment Form.

What could possibly go wrong?

Link via Nerd Bastards | Image: Wicked Lasers

Taiwanese designer Wei-Chieh Shih put two hundred laser diodes on a nylon jacket. When he spins around, it looks all swirly. More pictures at the link.

Link via DudeCraft | Designer’s Website | Photo: Wei-Chieh Shih

This clock concept by Russian art collective Art Lebedev shoots a laser at sixty rotating mirrors to tell the time. Other clocks by this group that we’ve featured at Neatorama include the Verbarius Clock and the TaskWatch.

Link via technabob | Photo: Art Lebedev

I’m not sure what this is, but it is awesome. Sticky Light is a student project at the Department of Information Physics and Computing at the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory of the University of Tokyo. One source says this:

Sticky Light is a 3d tracking technology using a laser diode (low power), a pair of steering mirrors and a single non-imaging photodetector. The big difference to other tracking technologies is the fact that the Sticky Light doesn’t use a camera or projector. So what could you do with? It can track the contour of objects and even augment real-time drawings. Or you could build games like air hockey or a pinball game.

Official Website via Oh Gizmo!

Kelly Ferrell uses a laser to cut these adorable mammoths, there are also t-rexes, butterflies and more. They seem quite hard to put together once you get them, but the result is quite worth it and is certain to attract attention from anyone who sees them.

Link Via Boing Boing