this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Laser Beams Deflected Off of Nothing but Air for First Time Ever in Breakthrough Patent Pending Process - The Debrief (thedebrief.org)
submitted 10 months ago by L4s to c/technology
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Laser Beams Deflected Off of Nothing but Air for First Time Ever in Breakthrough Patent Pending Process - The Debrief::An international team of scientists report that they have successfully used acoustics to deflect laser beams in an engineering first.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

But that needs air. There's no air in space.

[–] CosmicTurtle 18 points 10 months ago

There's an Air and Space Museum

[–] abhibeckert 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Doesn't need to be air "in space", there just needs to be air somewhere between the laser weapon and whatever it is you don't want the weapon to destroy...

... although it'd probably be easier to use a mirror. Maybe one pointing directly at the person holding a laser weapon. ;-)

[–] brianorca 4 points 10 months ago

Corner reflector. Send it back where it came from, without knowing where they are ahead of time.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Damn... you're right.

Maybe they'll find another way now that they've found one.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

A mirror? Light won't reflect off of nothing. The closest you'll get is gravitational lensing, but that requires about a galaxy's worth of mass to make any noticeable difference.